About a year and a half ago, the Spanish company Dorna, manager of the MotoGP rights, began an exhaustive process of interviews with the riders, mechanics, team managers, commercial partners and also groups of fans to try to extract the essence of what represents the World Motorcycle Championship for its enthusiasts. It was one of the first tasks assigned to Dan Rossomondo, the competition’s new commercial director, upon taking office in April 2023 after more than a decade in the NBA.
“From the first moment we have wanted to highlight everything that makes us unique as a sport, without trying to resemble anything else,” says the executive in conversation with Morning Express, the new identity of the contest. “We want to champion modernity, but without ever forgetting our roots. This goes far beyond a logo. It’s about how we talk to the fans, to the business partners and to all the public that is out there,” he emphasizes.
From now on, the closing of all official MotoGP communications will have a new motto: “Welcome to the most exciting sport on the planet.” Another of the new main lines of the plan is summarized in the three ephes: ‘Faster, Forward, Fearless’. Faster, forward and without fear, translated into Spanish.
“It is the best sport in the world, the best spectacle without a doubt,” said Jorge Martín when he was asked, having just placed his plaque in the champions tower, about his definition of MotoGP. “It is difficult to improve what we have seen now, I love the logo, it has impacted me,” commented Pecco Bagnaia, the outgoing champion, after attending in the front row the beautiful manifesto narrated by the actress Emilia Clarke, Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones . It is one of the many hooks that the company wants to launch to the new audiences that the discipline is looking for. “We ride to the limit of what is possible,” he comments at one point in the video, which this Monday will reach his more than 26 million followers on social networks, most of them unrelated to speed motorcycling until now.
The huge number of interviews ended up being summarized in a series of very specific terms: brave, fast, exciting, dangerous and welcoming, among others. “From all that we get our brand personality, who we really are. And three key elements came out: the new logo, a manifesto about who we are and what we want to be and, finally, a new graphic language for all our communications.” All graphics, both printed and television, will have a torque similar to the degree of inclination that the riders take in the curves, also a nod to the rubber marks left by motorcycles on the asphalt.
Pentagram, an award-winning London design studio that renovated, for example, the image of the Guggenheim, has been the creator of the new MotoGP identity. Until it was leaked 24 hours after the official announcement, the logo was known to about 30 people within the company, and not too long ago only the three tenors of it along with the design team. Carmelo and Carlos Ezpeleta, CEO and sports director of the championship, and Rossomondo himself.
“We want to attract more tourists, other casual fans, introduce the sport and our heroes, the drivers, in all spheres of society, be hooked on spaces that go beyond mere competition,” develops the commercial director in his conversation with this newspaper. “A brand is much more than a logo, and MotoGP is much more than a sport,” says Ezpeleta Sr., who in 1992 began to lift the two-wheeled elite to unthinkable heights. This visual and communicative revolution comes just days after the definitive acquisition of the category by Liberty Media, an American multinational that has already relaunched the popularity of Formula 1 from 2017 until now, with success such as the Netflix series ‘Drive to Survive’, among many. other things.
Among many other changes already applied and others that are yet to be announced, in 2025 MotoGP will have a new marketing reference from the multinational Red Bull, the British executive Kelly Brittain. “There are those who criticize that there are only Spaniards or Italians here, but that is not a problem per se. In the United States, right now, the most popular athlete of the moment is Lionel Messi. Have you seen him give any interviews in English? No, and it is not necessary because the language of what he does on the field is universal. Our mission is to achieve the same with our 22 pilots, whoever they are and wherever they come from.”
The new image of MotoGP will debut on the track this Tuesday, during an interesting first test of 2025 with up to 13 color changes between the rookies who arrive in the category and the many riders who change teams. The champion Jorge Martín will debut with the Aprilia and Marc Márquez with the Ducati of the official team, predictably the best bike on the grid after sweeping 19 victories out of a possible 20 this season. There will also be Ai Ogura, the first Japanese champion in 15 years, and Somkiat Chantra, the first Thai to reach the premier category. All of these are steps towards an exciting future.
