Written by Abhishek Ramesh, Edited by Julia Bissessar
From Rossi to Márquez, MotoGP’s icons have shaped motorsport history. So why don’t the world’s biggest sports awards recognize them in the same breath as their four-wheeled counterparts?
Last weekend’s Thai GP was yet another instance of Marc Márquez showing everyone why he remains the top rider in the premier class of motorcycle Grand Prix racing. His Ducati days and current position with the factory red team have rekindled his prospects and desire to win, even after years of being excluded from championship contention. Moreover, accolades continue to follow him to celebrate his comeback trail.
Marc Márquez was nominated for the prestigious 2025 Laureus Comeback of the Year Award. While Márquez’s award nomination is a testament to his resilience, a broader question looms before us: why has MotoGP, despite producing legends like Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner, never been truly embraced by the Laureus Awards? In stark contrast, Formula One drivers have been a constant presence at the ceremony, raising concerns about MotoGP’s rather scant relationship with the awards often known as the “Oscars of Sports”.
The Laureus World Sports Awards is an annual ceremony that recognises elite sporting achievements from around the globe. The seven main categories of the Laureus Awards are Sportsman of the Year, Sportswoman of the Year, Team of the Year, Breakthrough of the Year, Comeback of the Year, Sportsperson with a Disability of the Year and Action Sportsperson of the Year. Some of the notable Laureus winners include tennis legends Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic, athletes Usain Bolt and Yelena Isinbayeva, footballer Lionel Messi, gymnast Simone Biles and F1 World Champions Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
MotoGP, however, has been notably underrepresented compared to Formula 1 with no rider ever winning the Sportsman of the Year Award. Why might that be?
Comparing F1 and MotoGP representation at Laureus
As alluded to above, F1 drivers have regularly been present at the pinnacle of Laureus ceremonies. With the exception of Fernando Alonso, every F1 champion with multiple wins in the 21st century has won the Sportsman of the Year Award at least once. MotoGP’s lack of visibility at this stage is exemplified by the fact that even seven-time MotoGP champion and icon Valentino Rossi failed to win the main award.
Although in Laureus’ defence, Valentino Rossi was awarded other recognitions by the foundation: the Spirit of Sport Award in 2006, the Comeback of the Year Award in 2011 and finally, the Sporting Icon Award in 2022. But the only other MotoGP-based winner of the Laureus Awards was Marc Márquez when he won the 2014 Breakthrough of the Year for his historic championship win as a rookie in 2013. In fact, since 2011, there have only been two instances of a MotoGP rider being celebrated by Laureus with a Sportsman of the Year nomination: Marc Márquez in 2015 and 2020.
On the flip side, F1 has seen at least one driver being nominated every year since 2001 except in 2010 and 2017. This record shows how one of the two elite motorsports series in the world pales in comparison to the other when it comes to recognition on the global stage. The reasons can vary, but the key question is if F1 drivers are awarded for sustained dominance, why haven’t MotoGP’s greatest champions received the same treatment? Moreover, the one-sidedness of this perception is made more crippling when seen in light of the team focus.
The Laureus Awards have almost always acknowledged the accomplishments of F1 teams. Since 2002, an F1 team has been nominated every year for the Team of the Year Award except in 2009. What about MotoGP teams? The saddening reality is that no MotoGP team, factory or satellite, has ever been nominated for this award.
So, if the dominant runs by Redbull, Mercedes and Ferrari F1 teams and even Brawn GP’s one-off season success can be celebrated, what’s stopping Honda’s or Ducati’s winning machines from being held in the same limelight? One could point to how Ducati’s breakthrough year in 2007 might have warranted at least a nomination for racer Casey Stoner. And yet, he even failed to beat out Lewis Hamilton for the Breakthrough of the Year Award in 2008 despite the Brit not managing to win the title in his rookie year. What about the more recent instance of 2024 when Ducati won every Sunday race but one? Surely, Ducati’s recent MotoGP supremacy is on par with Redbull’s dominance in F1.
So, why is only one of them being honoured? And it is not just a Laureus case study either. The too few nominations at ESPN’s Global Sports Awards and BBC Sports Personality of the Year solidifies the notion that MotoGP might have a problem in being recognizable.
Why Does MotoGP Get Overlooked?
For starters, perception matters. F1 is viewed as the pinnacle of motorsports while MotoGP is still considered by many as a niche category. This view is despite the reality that the Motorcycle Grand Prix championship has been in existence longer than F1. The financial scale of F1 also dwarfs MotoGP, which further reinforces its image as the most technologically advanced motorsport. MotoGP being the most cut-throat two-wheeled motorsports series is little consolation in comparison.
F1’s marketing push, technical advancements, and Hollywood-level branding make it more visible too. It has a greater global media exposure thanks to Netflix’s ‘Formula 1: Drive to Survive’ while MotoGP struggles to find an equivalent. MotoGP’s attempt to emulate F1’s storytelling with ‘MotoGP™ Unlimited’ on Amazon Prime in 2022 largely fell flat due to poor promotion among worldwide audiences and a lack of compelling character narratives despite riders being larger-than-life personalities in reality. This highlighted a critical gap in perspective. While F1 actively built upon identities beyond the racetrack, MotoGP is yet to package its rivalries and the marriage of human bravado with machinery marvels in a way that resonates with the wider streaming public.
F1 also benefits from celebrity endorsements and major corporate backing, whereas MotoGP remains more Eurocentric and Asia-focused. While F1 drivers often secure multi-million dollar endorsements from brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Oracle, MotoGP riders’ deals aren’t as visibly lucrative, especially outside core motorcycle brands. This commercial gap affects not only the riders’ stardom but also how the sport itself is perceived globally. The wider representation of nationalities in F1 versus MotoGP also doesn’t help the latter’s cause, wherein most riders are from just two countries, Spain and Italy.
Ultimately, this then boils down to how Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are household names, transcending motorsport while outside of Rossi and Márquez, no rider has been able to breach this threshold to break into global mainstream consciousness. It can even be argued that the non-superstar athletes of the two series have widely different levels of recognition among sports fans in general.
One positive reason why MotoGP might have been overlooked in the past is that its golden era from 2006 to 2015 saw multiple champions being crowned. This may have reduced celebration on an individual level despite gaining popularity among hardcore aficionados. Conversely, it can be further argued that MotoGP did not cash in enough to make racing legends like Stoner, Lorenzo and Pedrosa into household names.
Where Does MotoGP Go From Here?
It is evident that institutions like Laureus view broader audience-centric sports as more prestigious and globally significant for their prime award categories. This is where F1 scores above MotoGP, as stated above. While MotoGP’s technical brilliance, rider skill and technological prowess are perhaps at par, if not greater than F1, the lack of a commercial ecosystem to push for mainstream awareness among more democratic audiences is truly a hindrance.
If MotoGP wants to break into Laureus-level recognition, it needs to market itself as a truly global sport. Expanding its presence in the US and non-traditional markets may be step one but direct parallels with F1 may not be the only way to go. Another way could be to launch a compelling documentary series that enlivens the scenes behind the helmets and tracks. The recent YouTube series about Valentino Rossi’s trophy-laden career and life might have been a step in the right direction. Yet, it highlighted the lack of a bigger marketing push on MotoGP’s part after it was simply uploaded to the video-hosting platform.
How else would more eyeballs fall on such a vivid sporting spectacle? Without these steps, MotoGP would be playing a risky game of sticking to a motorsport purist’s obsessions rather than growing into a global sporting culture. What is beyond doubt is that MotoGP has seriously talented and brave athletes and teams that are at the top of the technology game. There is every reason to question why a sport that is so raw, pulsating and dangerous is not being sold as such. It is up to the sport now to position itself for the world to see and more importantly, give the riders and teams the limelight they absolutely deserve.
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