The new MotoGP: Win the spectators, but the riders lose because of injuries

The new MotoGP World Cup He has not yet reached the first third of the championship, already facing a seemingly absurd break of almost a month after the French GP, to be followed by three consecutive GGPPs and then the usual holiday break this year. be five long weeks when the Kazakhstan GP falls in July. But in the end there will be no nonsense in this gap without races because it will serve to heal the wounds of a lot of accumulated damage in the first five GGPP, at least a dozen novice pilots. What the new format, and the greater involvement of the drivers when it comes to getting closer to the fans, has served is an increase in attendance at the circuits.

114 waterfalls accumulated the 29 MotoGP riders to compete in a Grand Prix. The only one saved is Dani Pedrosa, wild card in Jerez, the rest, including the substitutes, were not saved. With 11 falls he leads the table Joan Mir and they followed him with 9 Jack Miller and Alex Marquez and with 8 the novice Augusto Fernandez. The four have in common that they have discovered a new motorcycle in 2023 and in the case of the latter, as well as the category.

They didn’t exactly come out with injuries, except Joan Mir who had to miss the race in Argentina because he did not receive the ‘apt’ due to head and neck trauma that occurred when he fell in the first turn of the Sprint.

THE REPORT OF THE INJURED

PORTUGAL GP
Pol Espargaro: double jaw fracture affecting the ear, one cervical vertebrae fracture, affecting the nerve area from the neck to the scapula, and three dorsal fractures, two rib fractures (FP2 fall). continue to be low
Enea Bastianini: fractured right scapula of his shoulder (sprint). continue to be low
Marc Marquez: Fracture of the base of the right thumb (race). Three GPs came down
Miguel Oliveira: Injury to a pair of ligaments in the right hip (race). A low GP
George Martin: broken toe and sprained ankle (running).
ARGENTINE GP
Joan Mir: head and neck trauma (sprint). a run down
AMERICA GP
Alex Marquez: vastus lateralis quadriceps muscle tear and ligament strain (running)
SPAIN GP
Miguel Oliveira: Fracture of the humerus at the base of the shoulder and damage to the anterior ligament of the labrum (running). continue to be low
GP FRANCE
Pecco Bagnaia: small and slightly fractured talus of his right ankle (career)
Luca Marini: right wrist trapezius injury (running)
Raul Fernandez: He left the GP because of the sequelae of a complicated operation for tricompartmental syndrome in the right arm

Most of the injuries occurred in contacts at the start of MotoGP races, be it the Sprint or the Sunday Race and no Grand Prix was contested. The most eventful was the first one at Portimao and two of the pilots missed the following GGPP, Pol Espargaro and Enea Bastianini while Marc Márquez he missed the next three. One of the less fortunate pilots with contacts was Miguel Oliveira which Marc Márquez threw in his home race in Portimao and missed the next GP and then in Jerez he was hit by Fabio Quartararo and still nothing.

And considering that they still cannot control the initial stress of races that are now double and that when they return from these ‘mini vacations’ in the spring they will have to face three consecutive GGPPs at Mugello, Sachsenring and Assen, misfortunes can continue to be decisive this year in front of the championship.

Television audiences just weren’t receptive

The conclusion left by the new format is that the public likes it returning to the circuits, another thing is that the television audience continues to decrease or more content is provided on Saturday with the Sprint race. Regarding the Spanish data, according to formulatv.com, except for Portimao, which had good numbers (Domingo Motogp 402,000 (4.3% share) 35.6% pay TV quota), the others, except for the timid Jerez, are clearly decreasing to the audience.

DAZN AUDIENCES THROUGH MOVISTAR

PORTUGAL GP
Saturday Sprint: 113,000 (1.2%) was the most watched
Sunday Motogp 402,000 (4.3% share) 35.6% pay TV share. most watched
Moto3: 100,000 (2.7% share)
Moto2: 164,000 (3.4% share)
ARGENTINE GP
Saturday Sprint: 65,000 (0.7%)
Sunday Motogp 170,000 (1.9% share) 9th most viewed
Moto3: 62,000 (0.6%)
Moto2: 67,000 (07%)
GP AMERICA
Saturday Sprint: will not appear in the top 20 of the day
Sunday Motogp 258,000 (2.0% share) 4th most viewed
Moto3: 149,000 (1.6%)
Moto2: 158,000 (1.7%)
GP SPAIN
Saturday Sprint: 85,000 (0.9% share) 9th most watched
Sunday MotoGP: 218,000 (2.3% share) 4th most viewed
Moto3 71,000 (1.8%)
Moto2 45,000 (0.4%)
GP FRANCE
Saturday Sprint: 81,000 (0.8% share) 11th
Sunday MotoGP 296,000 (3.8% share) 3rd most viewed
Moto3 65,000 (1.7%)
Moto2 119,000 (2.5%)

Make history attending Le Mans

Regarding public attendance, they come from 2022 where public attendance at the Grand Prix was 2,427,928, the lowest global attendance since 2012. So far, the numbers support a clear improvement. With the exception of Austin, which has not provided official data for years, the other four GGPPs are up from last year.

ATTENDANCES AT GGPP 3023

GP-FRIDAY-SATURDAY-SUNDAY-WEEKEND
PORTUGAL: 21,966 – 34,438 – 67,204 – 123,608
ARGENTINA: 51,256 – 62664 – 72,118 – 186,038
AMERICA: no data
SPAIN: 21,479 – 62,375 – 79,625 – 163,479
France: 58,894 – 88,319 – 116,692 – 278,805

Significant data from the GGPP of Spain and France. Jerez had its best attendance data since 2015 and Le Mans beat its historic Le Mans record of 88,319 on Saturday, 116,692 on Sunday for 278,805 at the weekend, a new absolute record for a circuit.