Enough of Italy and Spain: Liberty Media charts the future of MotoGP

2026 marks the first real year with Liberty Media “operating” as the owner of Dorna Sports S.L. and, consequently, of MotoGP. True: Carmelo Ezpeleta, together with his collaborators and trusted people (in top “family” positions), will continue to manage his creation, but he will work in synergy and in close contact with the new owners. The future of the World Championship is already outlined, and there will be less and less Italian and Spanish spoken.

This isn’t new. For years, Dorna Sports, even before being acquired by Liberty Media, has sought to broaden its asset’s horizons to emerging nations. Enough of this Italy-Spain dualism: the search is on for investors, sponsors, partners, manufacturers, and riders in markets so far unexplored or only lightly touched in recent years. From Southeast Asia to the Americas, to be clear. Nothing new, in short, but some drastic decisions pertaining strictly to the sporting side had not been taken until now.

When the acquisition of Dorna Sports S.L. by Liberty Media was announced, a detailed business plan was presented to investors and partners, outlining several key points for the next five years. Anyone who has seen it will have noticed how all items were classified with a comparison between the figures recorded in the “historic” motorcycling nations (therefore the Old Continent) and the projected growth in emerging countries for the coming years. One of the items is even “growth outside Spain,” a sign that everything will be done to make MotoGP less and less Iberian. More global, less territorial, essentially.

A policy Dorna Sports has pursued for several years now. Investments in the various Talent Cups (Asia, British, Northern) have produced something, but in the end the big names in terms of riders remain Italian or Spanish. The path is long, but evidently the decision has been made to speed things up, to the point that the decision to subsidize teams entering the MotoJunior World Championship (formerly CEV and JuniorGP), with substantial bonuses if they choose to field expressly (!) riders who are not Spanish or Italian, is quite telling.

Everything has been put in black and white: in the 2026–2028 three-year period there will be incentives for teams in the Moto3 Junior World Championship and Moto2 European Championship that achieve a championship title or at least 2 race wins in a season with riders who are not of Italian or Spanish nationality. All out in the open. These financial aids will be granted to teams that field and/or manage to lead to victory riders whose country of origin has at least 100,000 inhabitants and is not represented in the World Championship by more than 10% in terms of registered riders. Essentially, only Spain and Italy are excluded: any other nation is eligible.

From a business standpoint, nothing to object. From a sporting standpoint, some have already raised concerns. For a MotoJunior World Championship team, it will absolutely make sense to field riders who are not from the Italy-Spain axis. This will consequently impoverish the quality of the Moto2 and Moto3 grids, since now, in black and white, meritocracy will matter less and less, and the passport more and more.