Anyone finding themselves turning off MotoGP?

Always watched MotoGP - but lately since the Dorna/Ducati collusion, I find myself less and less interested.

Didn't even watch qualifying, it's just so... well BORING.

Anyone else?

I still enjoy watching the racing with my VideoPass, do not currently have any plans to stop using it, I enjoy the racing and behind the scenes scuttlebutt. Have been to one MotoGP race in my lifetime (Valencia in 2019) with my wife, sat in Corner 2 (Rossi corner apparently), could hardly see anything on track and ended up on the hill outside the track for a better view from afar. I am less interested in a live race, I find the live VideoPass streams much better for my liking.

Besides, profits from Dorna help pay my Canadian Pension Plan cheques each month, I certainly want to keep an eye on the CPPIB revenue sources ! lol

No, im a fan of the sport so i will keep watching.

Considering it has been 28 years from when I first watched a race and 22 years since watching religiously, I will continue to follow.

Could say I am quite invested.

Happy to add, this season so far is less exciting than others. Maybe less exciting moments. But the sport ebbs and flows, and I'll be still watching. Regardless of competivity, they are still the fastest men riding the fastest bikes in the world. That itself just gets me. As a fellow motorcyclist.

I really need to get myself to a race someday. Circumstance hasn't allowed that so far.....

I'm certainly not enjoying it as much as in the past boom, but then any sport is about peaks and troughs. I kept watching through the early 2010's when it was just 2 factory Yamahas vs 2 factory Hondas with the rest being 30s behind, and I'll continue to watch through the Ducati cup. I love the sport, and like others such as Mdub on here, I have a 5yo so don;t get the luxury of watching all the feeder series like my family do. That said, they seem to these days have become what they used to despise with Rossi fans i.e. moaning because Marc isn't winning. I'll never turn off just because my favourite rider isn't winning, but I do think it's criminal that the state of the sport has become such that riders like Marc (arguably the GOAT) and Fabio are riding around at the back.

Something has to change.

Though I view the sport as perpetually underperforming, and while I view some of the sport’s major players as the sort of witless goons who would kill a golden goose to harvest its eggs more quickly, I remain dedicated to the sport for the sake of the riders. The riders are accomplishing things on motorcycles that we mortals can only dream about, and it’s impressive to watch them at work.

My frustration with the sport is mainly trying to understand how the sport bounces from mistake to mistake, maximizing collateral damage along the way. The 990s were too raucous to follow the 500s (though I loved them). The 800s were too expensive and poorly utilized, and they killed the tire war. The 1000s banished Suzuki long before securing Aprilia and KTM, and they caused run off issues. Ride height has the sport (not the business) on the brink of collapse. What misanthropic force is behind all of this? Human nature? Key individuals? Corporations with delusions of lucrative profits?

MotoGP and WSBK need to refocus their energy on the attributes that made the series successful. I remain optimistic that it will happen in my lifetime.

I still watch occasionally but not like before. Through the 90s and 2000s I was a die hard fan, riding to races and really paying attention while racing myself for a couple of years. A poster talked about the ebb and flow in racing dominance and so it is with my attention. Doohan was an extraordinary competitor but I gradually grew tired of watching his and Honda’s 5 straight victorious years. I love any period where there is a battle. Even if there is one bike that is dominating, I will watch assiduously if there are two closely matched riders on that bike.

My beef with Honda was that they didn’t seem to want to put anybody on the team to challenge whoever their golden boy was at the time. This approach may have come out of the Prost-Senna rivalry in F1. Regardless, though I’ve owned several Hondas, I have not been a fan of their racing approach. I had a glimmer of hope when Lorenzo was hired, but it was not to be. I enjoyed watching Lorenzo and Rossi on the Yamahas.

Now Ducati seems to have a load of young talent and a great bike. Maybe I am just old and tired, but I don’t want aero and weird technical devices that I don’t understand deciding races for me. I will say Pecco seems to be a step above the others, some of whom seem to be riding rossi’s coattails. To their credit, Ducati don’t seem to mind letting their factory riders “Duc” it out. Too bad Basti got hurt through no fault of his own. Hopefully he can make it back. It is this sort of aspect that keeps me tuning in these days, rather than the actual racing.

One other aspect of interest, watching over several seasons is how riders deal with adversity and injury. The gold standard for a long time in this regard have been Doohan and Marquez, but they didn’t have the additional headache of an uncompetitive bike, at least until recently in the case of Marquez. It will be interesting to see how Fabio adjusts. I think we have already seen the apogees of careers such as Morbidelli’s and perhaps Bastianini‘s due to injury, as well as Vinales due to …..well, he is Mav.

I’ll still be here and watch the race…..some of the time.

There was a time when I watched every practice, in every class, every race, and sometimes re watched races...and the same with WSB.

Lately, I can barley get through the main race.

While I use to follow the practice sessions I find nowadays is that the practice sessions give a much lower sense of what is going to happen in the race.

No. I'm not..its great. There's been some amazing races.

Good for you!

I define a memorable race by good quality competition at the front until the end with no cheating or crashing.

By that standard I haven’t seen a memorable race yet this year.

I most likely won’t, as I rarely bother to watch. I even have the MotoGP subscription.

If it is possible to alienate even more people than they already have, Dorna is on the right track by making their website even more ridiculously difficult to use. That, along with vacuous content and equally vacuous commenting, will pretty much ensure I won’t be watching any longer.

Completely tuned out where viewing and subscription is concerned. I only read the various websites to see if they are ever going to get ride of wings and ride height devices. When they get rid of these rubbish items I will start watching again.

Sounds reasonable.

Bern1 said:

Dorna is on the right track by making their website even more ridiculously difficult to use

Click to expand...

In addition to the other things they have stuffed up on the web page, I can't find the box that showed the 10 ten in a session anymore

RossiSucchia said:

Always watched MotoGP - but lately since the Dorna/Ducati collusion, I find myself less and less interested.

Didn't even watch qualifying, it's just so... well BORING.

Anyone else?

Click to expand...

Honda had 7 bikes during 2003 my man.

The bikes faster then ever, the rider talent is as deep as it has ever been, and the technology is on the cutting edge... So has the spectacle changed? Is it becoming too much like F1?

As a motorcycle dealer I can tell you that sport bikes are a lot less popular now and it does seem that companies like Yamaha and Honda are less interested in GP racing because of that. I think that does translate into people being less interested in MotoGP.

Hollywood said:

The bikes faster then ever, the rider talent is as deep as it has ever been, and the technology is on the cutting edge... So has the spectacle changed? Is it becoming too much like F1?

As a motorcycle dealer I can tell you that sport bikes are a lot less popular now and it does seem that companies like Yamaha and Honda are less interested in GP racing because of that. I think that does translate into people being less interested in MotoGP.

Click to expand...

What's the main segment now? Adv. bikes?

Hollywood said:

The bikes faster then ever, the rider talent is as deep as it has ever been, and the technology is on the cutting edge... So has the spectacle changed? Is it becoming too much like F1?

As a motorcycle dealer I can tell you that sport bikes are a lot less popular now and it does seem that companies like Yamaha and Honda are less interested in GP racing because of that. I think that does translate into people being less interested in MotoGP.

Click to expand...

That may be a small reason. It ain't just sport bike riders who watch motoGP though.
The racing is now more processional than it has ever been in my memory. All the riders are saying it is harder to pass due to the aero and ride height.
Less engaging to watch without the lead changes and passes imo. Less sliding and sideways action too. Lead changes and passing has always stood motorcycle racing apart from car racing, take that away and you take away a big part of the draw card.

Do you know what really pisses me off? Since they updated the app, these is no 'no spoiler' section. While you can set it that way on your phone, you cannot on the smart TV app. So I have to get my wife to scroll through the app to find the race if I haven't seen it live.

It's like Dorna are TRYING to alienate people.