Why MotoGP’s new Amazon series is long overdue

Like it or not, Drive to Survive’s impact on Formula 1 has been significant. In its three series, released on Netflix, it has offered existing fans greater insight into F1 and snared a legion of new supporters thanks to its accessibility and its thrusting the F1 grid into the limelight.

Sports industry analytics company Nielsen Sports has projected F1 could reach 1 billion viewers across the 2021 season as a result of the interest Drive to Survive – as well as Esports – has generated.

Or to put simply, that’s a potential 1 billion people paying for F1 TV subscriptions, buying official team merchandise and sharing their enjoyment for the series across various social media platforms – thus increasing F1’s global reach further. And if you’re a driver or a team, your brand – and your sponsors - will receive a significant boost.

It’s no surprise, then, that news of MotoGP working with Mediapro and Amazon Prime to create its own documentary series in the vein of Drive to Survive was met was widespread positivity from leading riders during the Qatar Grand Prix weekend.

"It’s fantastic, it’s going to grow the sport and I’m sure there’s a few riders on the grid that want to be movie stars, so I’m sure it would help them quite a lot,” Ducati’s Jack Miller said.

MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi added: “I think now this format is very famous, this documentary [Drive to Survive] is funny. Formula 1 is funny and I think that it can be good for MotoGP fans that can understand better what’s happening behind the pit box. But it’s also good for people who don’t know very well MotoGP, and they can understand the way.”

Valentino Rossi, Petronas Yamaha SRT, Luca Marini, Esponsorama Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Fabio Quartararo’s comments on the idea was the most interesting: “Yeah, it will be great because it’s nice to look at this series and I feel like it’s better they don’t come in the box when riders are angry. But I’m curious to see who is the Gunther [Steiner] of MotoGP.”

Before Drive to Survive, a name like Haas boss Steiner’s would only be one known to those working within F1 and the hardcore fans. But now he’s a household name, his sweary outbursts on the series fodder for widespread social media memes.

PLUS: How Netflix built on a successful formula in Drive to Survive Season 3

MotoGP is loaded with interesting behind-the-scenes characters that would almost certainly endear themselves to watchers of the Amazon documentary series. The passion Tech3 boss Herve Poncharal exudes will almost certainly gain him a legion of fans, while Honda’s Alberto Puig will likely split opinion for his more direct – and sometimes controversial – views. And imagine if cameras had been present at Ducati across 2019 and 2020 as Andrea Dovizioso and general manager Gigi Dall’Igna clashed heads?

Motorsport is a niche, and MotoGP a niche within a niche. F1 had more of a mainstream presence before Drive to Survive, so at the very least it was guaranteed there would be viewers. But a good documentary is a good documentary, regardless of what it’s about

MotoGP is no stranger to the documentary treatment, but recent offerings have generally been in-house Dorna Sports productions or produced by companies like Red Bull. And while Dorna’s recent mini-series on Suzuki’s 2020 and Red Bull’s Dovizioso documentary made for compelling viewing, they weren’t exactly thrust upon an audience who doesn’t tend to tune into MotoGP races on a Sunday. And its most recent mainstream offering is out of date, 2015’s Brad Pitt-produced and Mark Neale-directed Hitting the Apex centred on the 2011-2013 seasons.

Of the crop of riders on the grid featured in that film, only Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi, Aleix Espargaro and Danilo Petrucci are currently still racing. MotoGP is now something of a future world, the majority of factory spots made up of young talent, while the rookies coming into grand prix racing in all classes each year continue to make waves. But the problem is in markets like the UK and the US, they remain largely anonymous.

Franco Morbidelli, Petronas Yamaha SRT

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

That’s a shame, because the characters in MotoGP right now – for the most part – are genuinely down-to-earth, humble riders who would make for great focal points of a documentary series. Seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton has used his platform to promote social issues. Franco Morbidelli did the same last year, with his special Spike Lee-inspired Misano helmet (above) and his incredibly thoughtful words on his motivations to sport leading to Lee himself calling him up. All of that happened on the weekend he took his maiden win, doing so on home soil and on a lesser ‘A-spec’ bike compared to his factory Yamaha counterparts. It was a fantastic story the wider world missed.

MotoGP’s only forays into the mainstream nowadays tends to be when something horrifying happens, as was the case when Morbidelli and Johann Zarco collided at the Austrian GP last year and their errant bikes narrowly avoided Rossi and Maverick Vinales. A week later, Vinales’ 140mph vault off his Yamaha as he suffered a brake failure hit the mainstream headlines. It’s not unusual, but it also suggests to the world that MotoGP is only worth paying attention to when someone almost dies.

Not only is that view pretty disgusting, but it also suggests the actual racing isn’t worth your time. That’s wildly inaccurate. While F1 has only just finally got its regulations in order to try and create a more competitive field, MotoGP’s rules revolution in 2016 has been proving the concept year-on-year since. In 2020, nine riders won races, five of whom for the first time, while they did so on a range of factory and satellite machinery. Suzuki won its first title in 20 years six years into its comeback, while KTM won three races just four years into its project.

And within all of that you had so many storylines. The triumphs and agony of Yamaha’s season; Marquez’s injury, his attempts to comeback and the evolution of his rookie brother; KTM’s triumphs and how they arose as its star asset Pol Espargaro headed for the exit; Suzuki’s stunning title charge and the rise of Joan Mir, and Ducati’s changing of the guard. All of that right there is a compelling documentary series. And there were many more subplots across the paddock which, outside of dedicated media outlets, went unreported to the wider world.

In the UK, this isn’t particularly helped by MotoGP being hidden behind a paywall. Dorna’s decision to award BT Sports the rights to MotoGP for 2014, removing it from free-to-air on the BBC, came as a significant financial boost. The reality of modern-day sport is sponsorship isn’t worth as much as it used to be and TV companies are willing to cough up the big bucks. But it’s also a balancing act. Live F1 coverage in the UK is also exclusively behind a paywall on Sky Sports, but F1 has ensured it reaches a more casual audience through its Channel 4 highlights package.

Joan Mir, Team Suzuki MotoGP

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

That isn’t afforded to MotoGP. Yes, ITV4 will carry highlights of MotoGP this year – but on the Monday after a race weekend and only for an hour. With three classes full of intrigue – and the lower categories where British hopes exclusively lie in 2021 – that simply isn’t good enough for the world’s biggest motorsport world championship after F1.

MotoGP’s new series going to Amazon instead of Netflix potentially could work against it, with platform boasting over 200 million subscribers, with some 73m based in the US alone. But Amazon Prime as of the start of 2020 had upwards of 150m subscribers – a figure likely to have grown across the pandemic as more people relied on Amazon for their deliveries, with a Prime membership entitling you to both next-day delivery and access to its streaming platform. In terms of choosing a platform to spend your money on, Amazon offers more of an incentive.

During the Qatar GP weekend, MotoGP didn’t even feature in the top 30 trending topics in the UK on Twitter. F1’s Bahrain GP hit the top spot

That existing subscriber base is important. Motorsport is a niche, and MotoGP a niche within a niche. F1 had more of a mainstream presence before Drive to Survive, so at the very least it was guaranteed there would be viewers. But a good documentary is a good documentary, regardless of what it’s about. Netflix’s The Last Dance basketball docuseries hooked 23.8m viewers outside of the NBA’s US homeland in its first four weeks of release last year. Almost certainly, basketball gained some more attentive followers outside of the US after that.

And even in motorcycling, the niche has successfully crossed over. The 2010 film about the Isle of Man TT – Closer to the Edge – brought the world’s maddest sporting event to the masses, the Manx economy benefitting from more people coming far and wide to see the TT for themselves and turning Guy Martin into the UK’s favourite lorry mechanic. The TT regularly invaded the mainstream press in non-COVID times after that.

If MotoGP can reap even a fraction of the reward from its own docuseries, it will have been a successful venture. The reality is, Dorna’s old sales pitch of ‘Come for Rossi, stay for MotoGP’ is losing its impact. Rossi hasn’t won a grand prix since 2017 and only scored one podium last year, while his move to a satellite team is seen to a more casual audience as a sign his career is in decline. He also isn’t going to be around for too much longer, all the while the new generation put on one hell of a show.

Valentino Rossi, Petronas Yamaha SRT

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

During the Qatar GP weekend, MotoGP didn’t even feature in the top 30 trending topics in the UK on Twitter. F1’s Bahrain GP hit the top spot. The fact the championship’s other main draw in Marc Marquez was absent didn’t help, while unfamiliar names to the casuals occupied the top spots.

PLUS: What Marquez will we get on his much-needed MotoGP return?

But this is exactly why, more than ever, MotoGP desperately needs some of that Drive to Survive magic, because presently it isn’t doing enough to make its grid the stars they really are.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team leads

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images