The MotoGP grid is dominated by Spanish and Italian riders; that's just a fact. Out of the 22-rider lineup, 15 are from either Spain or Italy, making up 68% of the grid. But Liberty Media, MotoGP's new owner, wants to change this, and I couldn't disagree more with the means the company is going about it—passports over meritocracy.
Liberty has introduced new financial incentives that'll be available from 2026 to 2028 to teams and riders that meet certain criteria, with the intention of diversifying the nationalities that we see on the grid from Moto3 onwards.
The financial incentive works like this: Any teams that hire and win with riders from countries that have an officially reported population of more than 100,000 people and have less than 10% representation in the MotoGP paddock—between Moto3, Moto2, and MotoGP—get up to €200,000 ($233,912). That's a very long-winded way of saying 'any nationality that's not Spanish or Italian' because they're the only two nationalities that it excludes.
If I were naive, I'd say this is a thoughtless way to diversify the competition, punishing riders who deserve to be on the grid and ultimately diluting the level of the classes. If I were more cynical, I'd say this is a 'throw money at it' plan to get more US riders onto the grid ahead of a 'Ride to Survive'-style docuseries, so Liberty can turn MotoGP into the money-making machine that F1 now is. And I'm all for blowing MotoGP up to the highest level—I want everyone to get the joy I get from watching this incredible sport. But I don't want to achieve that by diluting the talent coming through.
The main reason we have so many talented riders from Spain and Italy is that there's so much happening at a grassroots racing level, which we don't have in almost any other country. Italy had a national racing championship before WW1, but MotoGP, then the FIM Road Racing World Championship, didn't start until 1949. Spain, too, had a racing scene before the FIM Road Racing World Championship, making these two countries two of the very few to have recognized national motorcycle racing before the FIM Road Racing World Championship—Quelle surprise that feeder system is still, well, feeding.
Accessible grassroots racing puts the Italians and Spanish at an advantage, so if Liberty wants to level that out, then it needs to invest more money in talent cups outside of Europe or in grassroots racing outside of Europe, so when the final product (rider) is ready for Moto3, it's a fairer game when it comes to passport versus merit. It's not just wrong to give a less skilled rider a seat because of a financial incentive; it dilutes the grid.
I'm not saying Liberty shouldn't financially incentivise other nationalities so that we can have a more diverse, and hopefully a more popular grid, bringing eyeballs and sponsors from around the world. But this seems like a ham-fisted, superficial approach to solving a much deeper problem, which would take considerably more money, time, and effort to resolve.
Not everyone, even at RideApart, agrees with my take, however.
RideApart's Editor-in-Chief, Jonathon Klein, had this to say, "Honestly, Liberty's move to incorporate other riders from around the world is a welcome one. Too much emphasis has been placed on Spain and Italy in recent decades. Though they've produced generational talent, they're also benefiting from support from the series and the culture the series has promoted, whereas other locales have not. And for those Spanish and Italian supporters who've denounced the move, you're telling me the riders who compete at the Isle of Man TT, at World Superbike, or the States' superbike series aren't talented enough to compete? Bullshit. More support needs to be doled out across the world, instead of the concentration of resources on two countries. I welcome the change."
It's important to note that Dorna supports about 10 Talent Cups or racing series from around the world, but doesn't specifically fund any that directly support Italian and Spanish riders; however, both nations dominate the grids in the European Talent Cups and the FIM MiniGP World Series. So pull funding here if the Spanish and Italian's already have a leg up due to their motorcycle racing culture, and invest it in other talent cups from around the world, along with the money for the new "financial incentive", which is considerable.
The financial incentive for teams that use a rider that meets the new requirements are as follows:
- Any team with a rider who wins the Moto3 junior world Championship and wins at least four races gets €200,000.
- Any team with a rider who finishes second in the Moto3 Junior World Championship and wins at least three races gets €100,000.
- Any team with a rider who finishes third in the Moto3 Junior World Championship and wins at least two races gets €50,000.
- Any team with a rider who wins the Moto2 European Championship and gets at least four race wins gets €100,000.
The only redeeming quality to this financial incentive is that the rider has to do very well in the championship and win a set number of races, or it would seem redeeming. The reality is that Moto3 teams are poorly funded, often operating on a shoestring budget, so they're even more incentivised to avail of this financial incentive. The problem is, if a team chooses a weaker rider in the hope of the rider doing well enough to get that Liberty Media cash, and then the rider isn't competitive, the team loses, the rider loses, and most importantly, the rider who should've gotten the seat had there been no financial incentive loses.
What do we know, though, about the struggles of riders from other countries trying to make it to the top level? Not a whole lot compared to Jack Miller, who moved to Europe at just 16 to continue his racing journey and compete in the Spanish and German 125cc series, before moving to Moto3. In a previous interview, not specifically about this new financial incentive, Miller said, "I don’t want it to be on my passport, I want it to be on my speed. Obviously, Spain and Italy have extremely strong riders at this point in time, but I don’t want to be here just because of my passport; that doesn’t give me any interest at all.”
