Motorbikes

With Guenther Steiner's arrival as CEO at Tech3, MAT OXLEY wonders if MotoGP is about to have its Drive to Survive moment

- MAT OXLEY

It is no coincidence that former Haas Formula 1 team boss Guenther Steiner was recently announced as the new CEO of the Tech3 MotoGP team just weeks after Liberty Media completed its acquisition of MotoGP rights-holders Dorna. And neither is it a coincidence that Steiner started looking for a role in motorcycling’s premier race series just weeks after Liberty went public with its decision to buy MotoGP in April 2024.

Liberty is very good at creating a stir and this surely won’t be the last time it leverages elements of its F1 property to shine a light on the lesser-known world of MotoGP. Indeed, both Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have confirmed interest in buying stakes in MotoGP teams.

Hamilton is so into motorcycle racing that he has tested with Yamaha's World Superbike team and ridden Valentino Rossi's MotoGP bike. The seven-time F1 king made his first attempt at getting involved in MotoGP last year, when he tried to buy into the Italian Gresini team, which currently runs Álex Márquez and Fermin Aldeguer aboard Ducati machinery.

Steiner - who became a viral hit with his sweary, outspoken appearances in F1 docu-series Drive to Survive - announced the Tech3 deal at September’s Catalan MotoGP round, where Enea Bastianini secured the team's first podium of 2025 at the Barcelona circuit.