Liberty Media advanced its plan to grow MotoGP by tightening commercial frameworks and ramping promotion as the 2026 season approached and the Silverstone, UK attendance gap with F1 widened. The shift came alongside a new 2027–2031 agreement with all five constructors and leadership changes intended to professionalize operations.
The development mattered because the series sought to replicate the recent uplift seen in F1 while facing uneven demand in key markets such as the United Kingdom. Last updated: 9 July 2026, the unified picture showed progress on commercial pillars and marketing, but also exposed risks where event promotion and timing failed to convert broader audiences.
At Silverstone, the 2026 F1 British Grand Prix drew 564,000 fans across four days, including 175,000 on race day, while the 2026 MotoGP British Grand Prix registered 99,000 attendees after a year-on-year drop. Organizers still had many tickets available for the 7–9 August MotoGP weekend, underscoring the work required to translate visibility into sales.
Liberty leaned on its F1 playbook to raise accessibility expand social content and bring more spectacle to paddocks and stands. It also connected MotoGP with known F1 figures, aiming to funnel attention from one championship to the other while refining event identity country by country.
Constructors’ agreement 2027–2031 and commercial base
After months of negotiation, MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group and Ducati, Aprilia, Honda, KTM and Yamaha agreed on a commercial framework for 2027–2031. Teams did not secure a variable profit share; instead, they accepted a fixed annual amount capped at less than eight million euros, a structure designed to prioritize stability while Liberty executed growth initiatives.
Guenther Steiner referred to the approach as prudent, pointing to the need to first build value before revisiting distributions. “Liberty is new to MotoGP. We need to give them time to prove themselves before discussing profit-sharing,” he said. The settlement aligned with a broader trend of expanding calendars, provided each round retained a distinct event identity to avoid oversaturation.
The five-year window set a clear time horizon to raise per-event value and strengthen international positioning. The expectation within the paddock was that a larger revenue base in 2031 would enable renewed talks on how income is shared among stakeholders without disrupting the near-term plan.
Leadership changes and marketing resources
Liberty installed Vince Russell as Chief Financial Officer and Kelly Brittain as Global Marketing Director to professionalize core functions. The organization engaged Creative Artists Agency to expand the commercial program and Two Circles to focus on priority markets, notably the United States and the United Kingdom, where audience growth remained a central objective.
Operationally, MotoGP increased its presence on Instagram and X with more tailored, behind-the-scenes content highlighting riders as modern-day gladiators and elevating the race-weekend narrative. The aim was to convert curiosity into fandom by using a steady cadence of short-form videos, highlights and rider-led storytelling that could later support a longer-form docu-series concept.
Liberty also used F1 assets to shine a light on two-wheeled racing, involving personalities such as Guenther Steiner and Kimi Antonelli to channel attention across championships. Within the paddock, optimism persisted that higher-quality presentation and consistent storytelling could narrow the perception and revenue gap with four-wheel racing.
Silverstone attendance and missed cross-promotion
Silverstone’s 2026 attendance data illustrated the scale of the challenge. The F1 record contrasted with a 20% year-on-year decline for the MotoGP weekend and nearly 50% erosion versus a decade earlier. The circuit displayed only brief big-screen adverts for MotoGP during the F1 event, which left cross-promotion potential largely unexploited given common ownership and overlapping audiences.
Calendar context added headwinds. The MotoGP round’s proximity to the conclusion of the Premier League season diverted fan attention and logistics, while suppliers prioritized the Isle of Man TT, straining event support capacity. The result was a UK race week where visibility and conversion did not match product quality on track.
Guenther Steiner, now operating inside the MotoGP ecosystem, underlined that the core product did not require reinvention. “You don’t have to make it attractive—which it already is—but simply need to show it better,” he said. He described the intensity of rider preparation without simulators and the heightened physical risk profile as assets to be showcased more clearly to new audiences.
Format, storytelling and target markets
The current format, including the MotoGP Sprint on Saturdays, remained unchanged. Carlos Ezpeleta emphasized media distribution and storytelling to help viewers at home understand the weekend journey and the athlete experience. “We want to convey the experience of a MotoGP weekend to fans at home,” he said, outlining a content approach to ease the path to fandom through merchandise, rider personalities and consistent narratives.
Market priorities included France, Spain and Italy, where the base was strong but could diversify, and the United Kingdom and United States, where the demographic for motorcycle interest skewed older. The plan aimed to engage women and younger fans through accessible content and on-site enhancements that translated the speed and risk of two wheels into an emotional hook.
Inside the paddock, Liberty’s expansion mindset echoed its F1 strategy but with caution around saturation. More events could work if each retained local flavor, delivered stronger fan engagement and avoided calendar clashes that dilute attention or resources. The Silverstone case made timing, on-site promotion and supplier alignment central to execution in 2026.
The next phase combined a fixed-cost team framework, targeted marketing and leadership oversight with continuing tests in promotional effectiveness at key venues. With tickets still available for the 7–9 August British round, the series faced a live measure of whether renewed outreach and cross-championship visibility could lift attendance before the 2027–2031 cycle began.
