F1’s owners Liberty Media announced the acquisition of Moto GP on April 1st for a whopping sum of €4.2 billion ($4.5 billion approximately). This meant that Liberty Media will now own two of the biggest championship categories in motorsport – F1 and Moto GP. On hearing this news, even Lewis Hamilton could not control his excitement and pitched an “epic” idea of having joint race weekends along with Moto GP.
According to Motorsport.com, Hamilton said, “It’s exciting because I love MotoGP. It would be epic if we can have them on the same weekend”. The 39-year-old jokingly suggested, “Maybe I could do a race in MotoGP and race a Formula 1 car on the same weekend – that would be really cool”. However, he did admit later that it would be “impossible”.
Liberty Media will be taking over 86% stake from Dorna Sports, the current owner of Moto GP. Reuters confirmed that Dorna will retain the remaining 14%, as they will complete the deal by the end of 2024.
From a sporting perspective, it may not change much for Moto GP. However, as Liberty Media has made several marketable changes in F1 since 2018, they may look to do a similar transformation to increase audiences for the motorbike racing series.
Hamilton too hoped for the same by adding, “I think Liberty has done an amazing job with Formula 1, obviously the value of the thing [rising since 2017]. So, I think they can do a great job with MotoGP.”
This is not the first time F1 and Moto GP have crossed paths. There was a time when Hamilton got together with Moto GP legend Valentino Rossi. Being a big fan of the series, the Briton wanted to try and ride Rossi’s bike, so they swapped their machinery!
When Lewis Hamilton and Valentino Rossi swapped their rides
It was back in 2019 when Lewis Hamilton got the chance to ride Valentino Rossi’s 2019 Yamaha Moto GP YZR-M1 bike. Meanwhile, Rossi drove Hamilton’s 2017 Mercedes W08, which won the Briton the F1 title that year.
The seven-time F1 champion said how it was “awesome” to see Rossi in his car. It reminded him of his first time in an F1 car. On the other hand, about riding the Yamaha bike, Hamilton said, “It was so cool to be out on track and see Valentino ahead of me on the same bike.”
Rossi too was thrilled with his first experience in F1 machinery. He said, “I felt like a real F1 driver for a day. I didn’t want the day to end.” While the nine-time Moto GP champion may have felt that F1 is quite complex, Hamilton once said that Moto GP is more difficult than F1.
The Briton said so because the Moto GP riders “don’t have seatbelts”. Thus, Hamilton feels that when there is a big crash for any rider, “It’s very, very difficult for them to improve safety, so that fear factor is always there and it’s been there for years”.
