Formula 1 and MotoGP will have one owner. Liberty Media has confirmed that it is buying the MotoGP championship. The purchase still needs to be approved by the European Commission, which acts as an antitrust authority in these cases.
It is quite likely that we will see some kind of connection between the two championships in the future, but probably not too much due to antitrust laws.
Could we see a weekend together? Possible. Speculations about a joint weekend appeared earlier – for example, the owner of the Circuit of the Americas in Austin talked about it. Last year, the heads of both series were supposed to talk about it during Domenicali’s visit to the opening MotoGP race, where he even waved the checkered flag.
By the way, MotoGP today races on five circuits that are part of the F1 calendar. In addition to the aforementioned COTA circuit in Austin, these are Lusail (Qatar), Barcelona, Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring.
With Liberty Media taking over MotoGP, similar plans for a joint weekend are likely to become even more realistic. But it will not be the first connection of the two worlds. Check out the earlier ones…
Continued 2 / 10
Nello Pagani
The motorcycle championship was founded in 1949. The first season then had six races. The first was the famous barrier on the Isle of Man. But the 125cc cubic capacity appeared only in the second company in Bremgartner, Switzerland. It was won by the Italian driver Nello Pagani (1911-2003) alias “Nello”. A year later, he tried out a Formula 1 car on the same circuit. In a Maserati, he went from 15th place to seventh place after the start.
Photo: Winterbergen / Anefo, CC0
Continued 3 / 10
John Surtees
No one bridged the two worlds more successfully than British racing driver John Surtees (1934-2017). To this day, he remains the only person to have won both the two- and four-wheel world title.
He rode two wheels from 1952 to 1960. During 68 races, he won 38 victories and a total of seven titles.
He then switched to F1, where he drove a total of 111 races between 1960 and 1972. He won six victories, 24 podiums and became world champion in 1964.
Photo: Getty Images / Victor Blackman
Continued 4 / 10
Mike Hailwood
Another driver who tried both two and four laps was Mike Hailwood (1940-1981). He raced in motorcycles from 1958 to 1967. In 152 starts, he won 76 victories and a total of 9 titles in three displacements.
“Mike The Bike”, as he was nicknamed, also collected laurels at the famous Isle of Man TT, where he took 14 victories, which still ranks him joint sixth in the all-time charts.
But he was less successful in Formula 1. He took two podiums in 50 races between 1963 and 1974 – second in the 1972 Italian Grand Prix and third in the 1974 South African Grand Prix. He raced for Surtees’ Brooke Bond Oxo Team Surtees, among others.
He tried Le Mans a total of four times. On his first run in 1969, he finished third with David Hobbs in a Ford GT40.
Photo: Getty Images
Sequel 5 / 10
Johnny Cecotto
Born in Caracas, Johnny Cecotto (*1956) already became a champion on two wheels (350cc) at the age of nineteen. He drove a total of 18 races in Formula 1 in 1983 and 1984. But he only scored points once – in the US Grand Prix in 1983, he finished in sixth place. He achieved greater success with GT cars. He tried it in the DTM, where he finished second overall in 1990, or at Le Mans.
In GP2 and F2 we saw his son Johny Cettoco Jr. During the tests, he tried Force India (2011) and Toro Rosso (2012).
Photo: Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
Sequel 6 / 10
Valentino Rossi
The Italian racer and nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi probably needs no introduction. We can still see his influence in F1 today. Lando Norris and Alex Albon were inspired by Rossi’s number 46 when choosing their starting number.
Rossi has never raced in F1, although there has been much speculation. His tests with Ferrari are famous. In December 2004, he tested a Ferrri car at the Fiorano circuit.
Valentino Rossi in Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari at the 2004 Australian GP.
Photo: Getty Images/Clive Rose
Sequel 7 / 10
Jorge Lorenzo
In 2016, Jorge Lorenzo tested a 2014 Mercedes W05 at Silverstone.
You can also play Czech subtitles on the video below from Monster Energy – just click on the gear > subtitles and select the language.
“I expected the steering to be much harder,” said Lorenzo at the time after the test. “I tested the F2 car at Snetterton two days before and it was very difficult to drive. The engine was very nervous and the steering wheel was very heavy.’
“But when I tried the simulator here at the Mercedes factory, it was like ‘wow, that’s a lot easier, but maybe the simulator is too easy and the reality is going to be a lot harder’. But no, she wasn’t.’
Sequel 8 / 10
Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso drove for McLaren in 2016, which used Honda engines. So it was no surprise when he appeared at the Honda Thanks Day event. The Spaniard rode there on a Honda motorcycle together with his compatriot Marc Márquez.
Sequel 10 / 10
Valentino Rossi and Lewis Hamilton
Valentino Rossi once again. In 2019, they swapped machines with Lewis Hamilton. At the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, as part of the event for Monster Energy, Rossi appeared in the 2017 W08. Hamilton, on the other hand, sat on the Yamaha MotoGP YZR-M1 motorcycle.
