On Monday 1 April, Liberty Media announced that it has acquired 86% of Dorna Sports and MotoGP as part of a deal valued at €4.2 billion.
With F1 and MotoGP now under the Liberty umbrella, there has been talk again of a potential joint race weekend for the two series.
In a first exclusive interview with Carlos Ezpeleta following Monday's announcement, with Motorsport.com's Spanish podcast Por Orejas dedicated to MotoGP, the executive says that a joint event is not out of the question, but it is not something that is being taken into consideration. consideration in the short term.
“Well, it's something that at the moment, for obvious reasons, is not in the immediate plans and it's not something we're working on, but it's also not something we rule out for the medium-term future,” Ezpeleta said.
“But having said that, the reality is that it makes limited sense, because ultimately we have some events with our own fan base, which in most places is different to that of Formula 1.”
“They sell out many circuits and so do we, so getting us all together in the same event, on the same weekend, is difficult and the return on investment is not very clear at the moment. Then there are also the problems with the different sponsors , the cameras. In other words it would be a rather complicated project.”
“On the other hand, there are only a certain number of circuits that can handle both categories, but they are not that many, so it is a project that is not excluded, but we are not even working on it.”
Fans of Miguel Oliveira, Trackhouse Racing Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The future of the Superbike World Championship under the new agreement with Liberty is not yet clear, but for the moment Ezpeleta says that there are no plans for MotoGP and the factory-derived world championship to contest joint events.
“It's something that has been talked about for a long time and in reality, since there is a very direct link, I don't know what advantages it would have. Clearly it would make the exposure of Superbike more relevant, while I believe MotoGP would have little to do with This”.
“There is an important crossroads of fans and the people who go to Montmelò for the Superbike then I believe also go to the MotoGP, so it doesn't make much sense for both things to be there together, because you no longer attract people and you have to pay for both, Superbike and MotoGP, so at the moment it doesn't make much sense”, he concluded.
Additional information by Oriol Puigdemont and German Garcia Casanova
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