The Formula 1 Trap of MotoGp
A reflection on growth, authenticity and what sports risk losing when they become entertainment products.
By Carles Carrera · June 2026
Most MotoGP fans agree on one thing.
MotoGP is nowhere near Formula 1 in terms of popularity, audience size or commercial success.
The usual assumption is that this is a problem.
I am not so sure.
Because before asking how MotoGP can become as big as Formula 1, we should ask a more important question:
Should it?
Formula 1's growth over the last decade has been remarkable.
New audiences. New markets.
New sponsors.
New celebrities.
Netflix.
Social media.
A level of global attention that MotoGP can only dream of.
But that growth did not happen by accident.
When sport becomes entertainment
Formula 1 stopped being just a sport.
It became an entertainment product.
The races remain important, but they are no longer the whole story.
The drivers became characters.
The teams became narratives.
The paddock became content.
The sport became easier to consume for people who were not particularly interested in racing.
And that was incredibly successful.
The question is whether MotoGP should follow exactly the same path.
Because there is a trade-off.
The only way to attract millions of new viewers is to attract people who do not currently care about motorcycles.
That sounds obvious.
But it has consequences.
The more a sport optimizes for mass appeal, the more pressure there is to prioritize spectacle.
More drama.
More stories.
More unpredictability.
More entertainment.
Eventually, the sport risks becoming partly about everything except the sport itself.
The challenge is that many of the things casual audiences enjoy are not necessarily the things hardcore fans value most.
Most MotoGP fans don't watch because of celebrity culture.
They watch because they love motorcycles.
They love rider skill.
They love engineering.
They love risk.
They love watching the best riders in the world do things that seem almost impossible.
That purity is part of the attraction.
And purity rarely scales.
The pressure to create a show
The same pressure eventually reaches the regulations.
If the goal becomes maximizing audiences, there is increasing temptation to create closer competition, more uncertainty and more dramatic outcomes.
Not necessarily because it improves the sport.
But because it improves the show.
At some point, the objective subtly changes.
The goal is no longer finding the best rider and the best machine.
The goal becomes creating the most engaging product.
Those are not always the same thing.
This is not a criticism of Formula 1.
Formula 1 made its choice.
And financially, it was probably the correct one.
The real question is whether MotoGP should make the same choice.
Or whether there is value in remaining smaller, more technical and more authentic.
Growth and authenticity
This tension exists far beyond motorsport.
Companies face it.
Brands face it.
Creators face it.
Even entire countries face it.
Growth often requires change.
The difficult question is how much change can happen before something loses the qualities that made it valuable in the first place.
That may be the real challenge facing MotoGP.
Not how to become Formula 1.
But how to grow without becoming something else.
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Carles Carrera · Co-founder of AMS and RSPro.