What’s on this week
Even by Motogp’s standards, last weekend’s French Grand Prix was incredibly wild thanks to a mid-race downpour that forced riders to swap bikes in a rare flag-to-flag affair. As ever with motorcycle racing’s premier class, it didn’t disappoint, and neither did the supporting Moto2 and Moto3 races, which had their usual close battles and plenty of thrills and spills.
Given the sensational racing, that fully justified the fact that the Le Mans Bugatti circuit event was the first Motogp round to be shown live in the UK on free-toair television since the end of 2013.
In much the same way that Sky Sports has a hold over Formula 1, so too has BT Sport on Motogp. It has had exclusive rights to televise the championship since
2014, with an agreement in place until 2024. But all that changed last weekend. An agreement between Motogp promoter Dorna Sports and ITV allowed for the French event to be shown live and in its entirety on ITV4, making for more than five hours of coverage on Sunday.
For UK fans not wishing to part with a significant amount of money, it was welcome news, and no doubt the viewing figures were substantially higher because of the decision, which Dorna has dubbed a “big step”.
The coverage was taken from Dorna’s world feed, found on its own subscription video pass service. And while there was no Suzi Perry fronting the programme from a London studio, or insight from 2003 World Superbike champion Neil Hodgson as on BT Sport, that certainly didn’t matter. The world feed was more than up to the task, with Steve Day and Matt Birt bouncing off each other in the commentary box and providing plenty of knowledge and insight, likely appealing not only to hardcore fans but also those new to the sport.
With ex-rider Simon Crafar offering updates from the pitlane and conducting face-to-face post-race interviews (an area in which even BT Sport has been restricted due to COVID-19), everything was covered.
As for the race, there was no shortage of information being thrown at fans. The position tower down the left-hand side is a common sight now in F1, but has been a staple feature of Motogp coverage for even longer. A plethora of other graphics highlighting when a rider has fallen, messages sent to them from their team, and race direction announcements all help to keep the viewers abreast of almost every aspect of a race.
Getting to view live the incredibly low heart rate of Fabio Quartararo was a different but welcome insight, as was the footage from a Gopro strapped to the front of a marshal as they sprinted across the gravel to help a fallen rider. For non-regular viewers, it’s a breath of fresh air compared with other motorsport coverage.
As for content missing… Yes, it would have been good to have a mini feature or exclusive interview prior to the race to break up the monotony of seeing riders walking from their motorhomes or sitting in garages until making their way to the grid. But this was to be expected, and certainly not a make-or-break aspect of the coverage.
There’s more good news for Motogp fans, with the British Grand Prix also set to be shown live on ITV’S main channel on 29 August. It remains to be seen whether there will be any bespoke coverage from ITV or if it will be solely the world feed coverage again. But even if it’s the latter, viewers are in for a treat, and the fact that live motorsport is once again more widely accessible, even for a short time, can only be a good thing.