With the 2023 MXGP season behind us and everyone looking ahead to the 2024 season, we caught up with Infront Moto Racing CEO, David Luongo to talk through the 2023 season, any changes for 2024, electric bikes and MXoN 2024. Read through the full interview below.
David, firstly thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. Firstly, how has the 2023 season been for you personally and as the promoters of the FIM World Motocross Championship?
“The 2023 season brought a lot of satisfaction. Overall, the Grand Prix have had a lot of success and we got to have the number of spectators we used to have before the covid, in some cases, we also had a great increase of spectators. On the sport side, this season has been very exciting and both titles in MX2 with Andrea Adamo and MXGP with Jorge Prado has been given one GP before the end, which was also very good for the fans and the intensity of the championship. Thank to the different changes we made last year, in particular in regards to the entry fee for the wild cards riders and the freight allowance for the privateer for the overseas, we also witnessed an increase in term of riders participation in both class with an average of 29 riders in MX2 and 31 in MXGP (+3 riders in both class compare to 2022 season). Then the European Championships are still growing massively with an average of 68 riders in EMX 125cc. This championship is the base of our pyramid system and it shows the great state of our sport! This season was also the occasion to launch the paddock show, a new entertainment for the public where the best riders and some local heroes come to meet the fans in a structure for an hour in the paddock on Saturday after the qualification races. Those qualification races that were giving points for the first time also this year, and the result was very interesting and exciting. It brought a new full dimension to the Saturday program. Finally, we ended the season in Ernée with the Monster Energy Motocross of Nations, and what an event it was. It will for sure stay in the mind of all the motocross fans in the world and will continue to make MXGP to grow in the years to come. The winter is very welcome after such a great and demanding season, but we are already eager to be in March for the new season to begin!“
This year we seem to have seen a big increase in spectators at rounds of the MXGP, what are your thoughts on this, is the ticketing model of MXGP working to how you have planned?
“In general, the ticketing of MXGP has grown this season. As I mentioned above, it is the first season since the covid that we are surpassing the spectator’s figures of 2019 and it is very rewarding. We saw a solid growth in country like France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Indonesia and Argentina. For sure, the fact Andrea Adamo has been crowned in MX2 will bring a new dynamic on the Italian market after the retirement of Antonio Cairoli, and Jorge Prado is bringing the MXGP to another level of popularity in Spain in combination with the fantastic Grand Prix of Spain in Madrid. Here again the Monster Energy MXoN in France broke the record of attendance in the history of Motocross with a massive 102.000 spectators cumulated from Friday to Sunday. We hope to continue on this dynamic in the years to come, we really feel that the passion around MXGP is growing year on year.“
This year you introduced the Paddock Show which seemed to be a big positive for the spectators, riders and teams. Do you have any plans to change this slightly moving into the 2024 season?
“The close relationship between the riders and spectators is in the DNA of our sport. It is really important for us to maintain and even improve the exchange between the fans and the riders. In many other motorsports and sports in general, the athletes are not anymore connected with their fans excepted with the social networks. We want to keep that in MXGP. From this statement came the idea of the Paddock Show on Saturday after the RAM Qualification Races that also grew up in importance with the points allocation. Before this season, the traditional press conferences were taking place on Saturday evening only with riders and the press, and we wanted to move this activity to a pure moment between the riders, the press and the fans. In the future we want to improve this activity by bringing more event to the paddock show structure during the whole weekend.“
The Nation’s was the biggest we have seen in a long time in terms of crowd and the atmosphere was unreal. What was your opinion on the Nation’s and do you think we could see this in the future MXoN’s events?
“This MXoN will remain in the mind of motocross fans forever. First because the attendance number made history. Secondly, because it was a real celebration of our sport, and this is the power of the MXoN. We had fans coming from all around the world to support their country but also to have a great time with the motocross community. I strongly believe that it is the main strength of the MXoN today, the event by itself is so appealing that most of the fans are already blocking their agenda for the 6th of October 2024 in Matterley Basin, UK, to be part of it. We had more than 35 Nations that were represented during this MXoN, and it was one of the best line-ups ever. I already cannot wait to be in the UK next year, on one of the most beautiful and appealing tracks in the world.”
2024 the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations will take place in the UK at the spectacular Matterley Basin circuit with Steve Dixon. Can you tell everyone how you decide on what countries will host the Nations or do they have to tender for the Nations?
“The Monster Energy Motocross of Nations is the biggest Off-Road event in the world. We need to find a track that can have the infrastructures to host this kind of event. Hosting more than 80.000 spectators, during the weekend, the parking, the paddock that will welcome all the Nations. Then, it is the event where the industry invests the most with some special structures (In Ernée this year, some structures of some brands were coming from the MotoGP and F1). You don’t have many tracks in the world that can host this kind of big event. For sure, our target, as we’re developing MXGP and some organizers are improving every year their track, is to have more and more circuits that could host the MXoN. Similarly to Ernée, that hosted the MXoN successfully in 2005, 2015 and 2023, Matterley Basin organized also 2 fantastic MXoN in 2006 and 2017. The British fans are also big supporters of the MXoN and I am sure they will answer the call. Finally I like the idea to bring the MXoN every 3 years to USA and create a kind of balance between Europe and the US.“
There is a lot that goes into running events, especially the World Championship, can you tell us more about the number of staff that you employ and give everyone an overview of what goes into making the event happen as lots of people just turn up and see everything done but don’t fully appreciate the time and effort put in by everyone.
Infront Moto Racing is the promotor of the MXGP World Championship, which means that we are the exclusive television, marketing and media rights holder of this championship since 2004. Our team, made of 150 people is responsible to develop MXGP. It is very complicated to resume in short lines all the tasks we are doing, but let say that we have a 360 overview on MXGP Grand Prix. Our 21 trucks move all the logistic that we build on the track. The SkyBox, the PitLane, the Advertising boards that are present on the track, but also in the paddock. We have a track builder team of 5 people moving from GP to GP to work with the local organizer and to design and build tracks when we are racing in other continents. We also provide hospitalities onsite with a team of 20 people, providing more than 3.000 meals per weekend. Then we also provide the TV production, we install the cameras along the track, we film and we broadcast the races with live commentary that we send directly to the TV broadcaster around the world. We manage the international press (between 80 to 200 media per Grand Prix) in the media centre and we create contents for all kind of media channels associated to MXGP, like the MXGP Official pages. Finally, we are in charge of building the MXGP calendar and to make this championship grow worldwide by going Overseas with the target of having 20 Grand Prix.”
MXGP-TV is very popular and well-received by all, but will there be any changes to the production in 2024?
“We were the first sport promotor back in 2011 to launch an OTT platform. Our vision was to be able to provide the MXGP live feed to every motocross fan around the world that wish to watch us, even if we didn’t a TV deal in his country. More than 10 years later I can say that we succeeded with MXGP-TV. We renewed the platform 2 years ago to bring a better customer experience and to be easier to use on Mobile phone. We are still growing in term of engagement season after season and still today this platform is the best way to follow MXGP with more than 8 hours of live per weekend. This year we also launched a special program between the race during the MXoN with a paddock tour to give an insider experience to the fans with special interview and some tour inside the teams. We will continue to develop this program next year.“
Looking ahead to 2024, we have the provisional calendar out but there are two TBAs on countries and venues and the Italian round in September is a TBA. Can you tell us anything to give a bit of an update on what these could be or when we can expect to see these to be announced?
“It is still too early to give more info on the Grand Prix that are TBA but we hope to communicate before the end of the year. As I mentioned above our target is to reach 20 Grand Prix.“
Electric Motocross Bikes, it’s great to see new and current manufacturers investing in Electric from a sustainability perspective and will give the sport so much more opportunity to hold events in areas we can’t currently be in due to noise issues, but when will we see Electric bikes competing in MXGP?
“The noise issues had never been on the agenda of a MXGP event as the Grand Prix are also linked with a strong will of the local government to host an international event (the most important of the year in many countries). It is the same principle for F1 and MotoGP. The electric motocross bikes are giving a new technology support for the industry to gain more customers and I believe it is a great product for kids to train and to access the sport. We already have a support event during the MXGP Weekend with the KTM e-motocross series, and I believe that it is a first step into the MX, but considering to mix electric bikes with MXGP classical ICE bike is still not in our mid-term vision.”
Finally, before you go it’s fantastic to see two new manufacturers coming into the sport, Triumph and Ducati. It surely shows the longitude of the sport with companies investing in our sport.
“MXGP will welcome 9 Official Manufacturers in the years to come, there are no other motorsport in the world with such a diversity of brands competing together for the world title. It is really rewarding because it is the result of decades of investments and strong choices from our sides, a big amount of work and trust from the different stakeholders of our sport to our company. But I won’t take it as granted as we always need to improve in sport and do better than before, so it is a great step forward with an even better future.“
Photo Credit – MXGP
