Morbidelli suggests MotoGP needs to show more midfield battles on TV like F1

In last Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix, just under five seconds covered the riders from eighth down to 13th, which featured grand prix winners in Fabio Quartararo, Aleix Espargaro, Enea Bastianini, Morbidelli and Marc Marquez, as well as multiple podium finisher Johann Zarco.

But very little of this group was given any airtime during the live world feed broadcast of the grand prix, despite the battle for victory quickly stagnating.

Considering the quality of rider in that midfield tussle, Morbidelli felt MotoGP is lacking in how it portrayed this action to an audience.

“The show is happening in the front of the field, but also in the famous midfield there are things happening,” said Morbidelli, who was 11th in the Austrian GP.

“There are strong riders and also strong battles there.

“And I was thinking about Formula 1, because Formula 1 makes you follow all the battles of the midfield - I was thinking maybe there is some room to improve and some way to make some things in the midfield stand out also, because there are some hell of a riders there now.

Franco Morbidelli, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“There is an eight-times world champion [in Marc Marquez], there is [Fabio] Quartararo, who is a world champion.

“There are people behind fighting their asses off. So, maybe things can improve on showcasing more these kinds of things during the race.”

The length of MotoGP races plays a part in this, with a typical grand prix lasting no more than 45 minutes, whereas an F1 grand prix is usually twice this duration.

To its credit, Dorna Sports has worked on a number of broadcasting developments to enhance its coverage.

In Austria, it debuted a new camera mounted to the back of Marco Bezzecchi, while it has utilised a shoulder-mounted camera for some time.

A new drone camera has also been deployed for this season, while MotoGP has made use of in-picture feeds for a number of years.