{"id":950145,"date":"2026-11-02T18:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T18:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/950145\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T18:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T18:36:12","slug":"qatar-motogp-the-2-billion-rebellion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/950145\/","title":{"rendered":"Qatar MotoGP: the \u00a32 billion rebellion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Very occasionally, the background ground noise is loud enough to drown out the ground-shaking roar of the MotoGP<\/a> grid.<\/p>\n

As Marc M\u00e1rquez<\/a> left the rest of the grid way behind at Sepang<\/a> on Sunday to record his 80th MotoGP<\/a> victory and put one hand on his 10th world championship, Yamaha<\/a> was preparing to announce the withdrawal of both its teams from this weekend\u2019s Qatar Grand Prix, due to multiple credible signs of renewed military conflict in the region.<\/p>\n

By that time, all but three of MotoGP\u2019s 22 riders had announced they do not want race in Qatar, for the same reasons. No one knows how many riders will line up under the Lusail floodlights this weekend, but most likely the grid will be at least half full, as teams and manufacturers (it is they who are contracted to Liberty Media, not the riders) pressure their riders to take part.<\/p>\n

This has never happened before in eight decades of MotoGP \u2013 riders, teams and manufacturers rebelling against the championship\u2019s owner.<\/p>\n

Why now? Because MotoGP\u2019s new owner Liberty Media, specifically its MotoGP Sports and Entertainment Group, has gone full dictator on its new property, which it acquired last year, to sit alongside Formula 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To understand why, always follow the money. Liberty and MotoGP<\/a> Group obviously want the Qatar MotoGP round to happen, because it\u2019s a very profitable event.<\/p>\n

But ultimately this is more about Formula 1 than MotoGP<\/a>, because Liberty\u2019s F1 Group (which includes MotoGP) makes the vast majority of its money from F1. And whatever happens this week in MotoGP, will set the precedent for F1\u2019s season-ending Middle Eastern rounds.<\/p>\n

If a significant number of MotoGP riders don\u2019t race in Qatar, F1 drivers will feel more confident telling Liberty they won\u2019t show up for the Qatar and Abu Dhabi F1 rounds in a few weeks.<\/p>\n

\"M\u00e1rquez<\/p>\n

M\u00e1rquez won his seventh GP of 2026 at Sepang, carrying a Spanish flag to honour the victims of last week\u2019s deadly train crash in Spain<\/p>\n

\n Ducati\n <\/p>\n

An F1 driver strike in Qatar and Abu Dhabi would be a disaster for Liberty. Four of this year\u2019s F1\u2019s 24 races were due to take place in the Middle East \u2013 Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi \u2013 and because those countries pay huge hosting fees (averaging around \u00a340 million), they provide 25% of Liberty\u2019s annual hosting fee income.<\/p>\n

When the US and Israel attacked Iran in February, April\u2019s Saudi F1 race was cancelled and the Bahrain round postponed. Those reactions, plus ongoing regional uncertainty, had a catastrophic effect on Liberty\u2019s finances. Its second-quarter earnings were down 69% on 2025\u2019s and the company\u2019s market value dropped by almost \u00a32 billion.<\/p>\n

This is why Liberty and MotoGP Group are getting so heavy with riders, teams and manufacturers, threatening them with all kinds of punishments if they don\u2019t race in Qatar: its share price will take an even bigger battering if these races don\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

Are the riders overreacting to the current situation in the Middle East? MotoGP Group deputy CEO Carlos Ezpeleta certainly thinks so.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is definitely safe to race here,\u201d he said during a brief visit to Qatar last week.<\/p>\n

Pretty much everyone else says otherwise.<\/p>\n

Liberty Media is an American company and the US Department of State says, \u201creconsider travel to Qatar due to risk of armed conflict\u201d.<\/p>\n

Qatar itself recently started Watan 2026, a massive military operation designed to test the country\u2019s readiness for war. Last week its air force removed planes from the USA\u2019s huge Al Udeid Air Base outside Doha, so they\u2019re less likely to be targeted by Iranian forces responding to US\/Israeli attacks. The Iranians last attacked Al Udeid in February.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is shutting down schools this week, in readiness for an increase in military action. And US oil executives have cancelled plans to attend the Middle East\u2019s biggest oil-industry conference, which takes place in Abu Dhabi this week.<\/p>\n

\"MotoGP<\/p>\n

MotoGP deputy CEO Carlos Ezpeleta (left) presents five-time MotoGP King Mick Doohan<\/a> with his Hall of Fame medal during the recent Australian GP<\/p>\n

\n MotoGP\n <\/p>\n

All these reactions follow threats by the USA to attack Iran following the USA\u2019s mid-term elections, which take place tomorrow (Tuesday). There is still a chance that military escalation will be avoided \u2013 Iranian negotiators are currently locked in talks with Qatari mediators in Doha, looking for a path out of the conflict.<\/p>\n

MotoGP management insisted during the Malaysian GP that it is prepared for all eventualities in Qatar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have reviewed the latest information and assurances provided by the State of Qatar, Lusail International Circuit, relevant embassies and independent experts,\u201d it stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese internal and external assessments continue to inform our ongoing risk review and decision-making process. Following a review of the latest information, official assurances from the State of Qatar and \u2060independent assessments available to us at this moment, we have received no information that would warrant a change to the current plans for the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, what MotoGP Group doesn\u2019t know are the USA\u2019s military plans for the region. Therefore, taking several thousand people \u2013 not only MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 riders but also their team personnel \u2013 into Qatar in these circumstances is at best reckless.<\/p>\n

If hostilities don\u2019t recommence, MotoGP Group will claim that it was right all along. But this won\u2019t be the case. That\u2019s like driving the wrong way down a busy motorway at 100mph and, if you survive, claiming that doing what you did was perfectly safe. It wasn\u2019t. You had no control of the situation. You were merely lucky.<\/p>\n

Reigning champion and current points leader Marc M\u00e1rquez is one of many who don\u2019t want to race in Qatar. He will travel from Spain to Doha as late as possible, in case the war flares up in the meantime. If the race goes ahead, he has little option but to take part, because his only championship rivals, Marco Bezzecchi<\/a> and the injured Jorge Martin<\/a>, have signalled their intention to contest the race.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s a second scandal to this affair: the MotoGP group is threatening the rebels with sporting penalties for non-sporting offences. Sporting penalties can include grid penalties, exclusion from races or practice sessions, docking of championship points and so on.<\/p>\n

\"Lusail<\/p>\n

Lusail pitlane \u2013 the 2026 Qatar GP won\u2019t only take 2000 or so paddock staffers into a potential warzone, it will also put local workers and fans at risk<\/p>\n

\n Mat Oxley\n <\/p>\n

There are no specific rules in the MotoGP regulations that address geopolitical situations. All they do say is that riders are allowed to miss races due to force majeure, which would seem to include the potential of war.<\/p>\n

Threatening riders with sporting penalties is 100% wrong. And this follows MotoGP Group\u2019s recent announcement that riders will be given sporting penalties for missing promotional duties, even though MotoGP regulations don\u2019t allow the championship\u2019s commercial owners to apply sporting sanctions.<\/p>\n

These new rules will make MotoGP unique in the sporting world. Sporting penalties for commercial offences are not allowed in Formula 1, IndyCar, NASCAR, football, golf, rugby, cycling, NBA, NFL or pretty much any other major sport or championship.<\/p>\n

How can Liberty get away with such a massive overreach of its powers?<\/p>\n

All sports rely on a separation of powers between commercial and sporting roles, so that businesspeople can\u2019t interfere with the sport itself.<\/p>\n

However, the powers within MotoGP are no longer fully separated. This goes way back to 1991 and 1992, when various factions and businesses were fighting to gain control of MotoGP\u2019s television rights, which are the championship\u2019s number one source of income.<\/p>\n

These rights belonged to motorcycle racing\u2019s governing body, the FIM (F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Internationale de Motocyclisme), so the FIM was trying to sell them to the highest bidder. The FIM\u2019s suitors included F1 mogul Bernie Ecclestone<\/a> and a little-known Spanish sports marketing business, Dorna Promoci\u00f3n del Deporte.<\/p>\n

The battle got ugly, with Ecclestone asking car racing\u2019s governing body, the FIA (F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Internationale de l\u2019Automobile), to change its statutes to expand its remit to organising motorcycle races as well as car races. This was a real threat to the FIM\u2019s very existence.<\/p>\n

Besieged on all sides, the FIM\u2019s power rapidly drained away, so when it finally signed with Dorna and teams\u2019 organisation IRTA, it essentially gave away its powers. Nowadays, the FIM supplies MotoGP\u2019s stewards and so on, but its power is more ceremonial than anything.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Qatar GP in quieter times \u2013 the grid lines up during the season-opening 2024 event<\/p>\n

\n MotoGP\n <\/p>\n

This is not the case in F1, where the FIA continues to exert considerable power. If the current MotoGP situation were happening in F1, the FIA would have a lot to say on the matter. However, we\u2019ve heard nothing from the FIM in recent weeks, but we have had MotoGP Group threatening to use the FIM to sanction Yamaha for missing Qatar.<\/p>\n

The three main bodies within MotoGP are still MotoGP Group (n\u00e9e Dorna), IRTA and the FIM. But since power comes from money and since MotoGP Group funds both IRTA and the FIM, these bodies have become somewhat homogeneous, so the MotoGP championship is now an autocracy, with its owners ruling with absolute power.<\/p>\n

This has been the case since the 1990s but until very recently, MotoGP management ruled with soft power. CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta found compromises whenever possible, with the full understanding that keeping the riders, teams and management on side is the best way to manage the championship.<\/p>\n

His son, Carlos Ezpeleta, prefers a more muscular management style. The first major sign of this approach was the decision to introduce sprint races in 2023. When teams met with Ezpeleta junior during the 2022 Austrian GP, they expected to discuss how many sprints per season and so on. Instead, they were told that sprints would be introduced and they would feature at every race. No discussion.<\/p>\n

Recent weeks have brought Ezpeleta into escalating conflict with riders, teams and manufacturers. Although four of MotoGP\u2019s five manufacturers will race in Qatar, the majority of team staff up and down pitlane would rather not be there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Very occasionally, the background ground noise is loud enough to drown out the ground-shaking roar of the MotoGP…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,5745,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-950145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motogp","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}