Liberty, the American media company that has owned F1 for the past eight years, acquired 84 per cent of MotoGP from rights holder Dorna in July for 4.3 billion Euros (A$7.7 billion)<\/a>, heralding a new era for the world motorcycle championship.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, Autosport reported that Guenther Steiner, who earned a cult following in \u2018Drive to Survive\u2019 in his role as Haas F1 team principal before he was replaced ahead of the 2024 season, is close to finalising a 20 million Euro (A$35.7 million) purchase of the Tech3 KTM MotoGP team run by Herve Poncharal that has been a fixture on the MotoGP grid since 2001. <\/p>\n MORE MOTOGP NEWS<\/b><\/p>\n \u2018A SHOW OF FAITH\u2019<\/a>: Why Aussie\u2019s hard yards for Yamaha might be about to pay dividends<\/b><\/p>\n MOTOGP\u2019S CRASH KING<\/a>: The rankings no rider wants to top, and the context behind former champ\u2019s brutal luck<\/b><\/p>\n Autosport\u2019s report stated the majority of the funding for Steiner\u2019s bid to buy Tech3 has come from the Apex company that manages investments for a number of professional athletes including McLaren F1 driver Lando Norris, and which also owns a stake in Alpine F1 team. <\/p>\n While Poncharal dismissed claims that the deal with Steiner was already done in an interview with GPOne.com earlier this week, he acknowledged: \u201cwe are talking but nothing was signed \u2013 I\u2019ve never made a secret of the fact that discussions are taking place.\u201d <\/p>\n Speaking to Fox Sports\u2019 \u2018Pit Talk\u2019 podcast, MotoGP reporter Simon Patterson feels the likely arrival of Steiner into the MotoGP paddock only increases the probability of Liberty Media commissioning a two-wheel \u2018Drive to Survive\u2019 equivalent to bolster the visibility of the series, whose problematic \u2018MotoGP Unlimited\u2019 docuseries flopped badly three years ago. <\/p>\n PIT TALK<\/b> PODCAST: The big questions from Liberty Media\u2019s purchase of MotoGP with MotoGP reporter Simon Patterson. Listen to Pit Talk below.<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cGuenther Steiner has been linked to taking over the Tech3 MotoGP team, because [team principal] Herve Poncharal is ready to retire and sell up \u2026 here\u2019s your immediate way to hook these fans across, you don\u2019t even pretend you\u2019re trying to do something different,\u201d Patterson said. <\/p>\n \u201cYou make a MotoGP documentary and you call it \u2018Ride to Survive\u2019, and you launch this spiky, outspoken character into the middle of the team bosses, and that\u2019s going to create something. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s people in MotoGP crying out for a platform for rivalries, not even the riders. Part of what made \u2018Drive to Survive\u2019 so interesting was the rivalry between the teams \u2026 Toto Wolff versus Christian Horner. That was something \u2018Drive to Survive\u2019 really magnified.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will have to be a documentary series, in some shape or form, simply because it\u2019s the standard now in sports because of \u2018Drive to Survive\u2019. Six Nations rugby, Tour de France, America\u2019s Cup \u2026 they have all got these documentary series built around the behind-the-scenes access because of what Liberty did. There\u2019s an inevitability that MotoGP will have to do something similar. It has to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n Herve Poncharal (right), pictured with 2024 star MotoGP rookie Pedro Acosta, is on the verge of selling his Tech3 team to former F1 team boss Guenther Steiner. (Getty Images\/Gold and Goose\/Red Bull Content Pool)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n Patterson feels Liberty\u2019s initial priorities with MotoGP will focus almost exclusively on the way the series markets itself to an audience wider than a core he feels is \u201cdiminishing\u201d, and that MotoGP\u2019s on-track offering won\u2019t change under its new owners. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat MotoGP has always done that I don\u2019t think is necessarily the right approach is that, with the possible exception of golf, we\u2019re the only other sport in the world that markets itself almost exclusively to the people who take part in that sport \u2013 we sell motorbike racing to bikers,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a diminishing audience as less people are riding bikes, especially less people are riding sports bikes, and the kind of previous captive audience of the guys who will buy on a Monday what you race [on a Sunday] aren\u2019t there anymore. That means we have to look at opening the audience, and that is something that Liberty has done really well in F1. That\u2019s something we can transfer over fairly easily, because we\u2019ve got all the same elements.<\/p>\n \u201cLiberty Media are smart enough to know they do not need to touch the sporting product, they just need to build it out. The benefit of that is that if you\u2019re an existing MotoGP fan, no-one\u2019s making you watch the documentary series, no-one\u2019s making you watch social media. You don\u2019t have to watch \u2018Drive to Survive\u2019 if you\u2019re an F1 fan, you can just tune in on Sundays and watch the races. That remains the case with MotoGP and whatever Liberty do. <\/p>\n \u201cThe core product will always remain the core product, because the core product is not the problem. It\u2019s all the stuff around the product that we need to change if we\u2019re going to expand the fan base and bring in new people, and that can only be good.\u201d <\/p>\n MORE MOTOGP NEWS<\/b><\/p>\n RISERS AND FALLERS<\/a> The biggest MotoGP winners (and losers) in 2025, so far<\/b><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
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