Why Guenther Steiner bought a MotoGP team after F1 exit
Richard Coleman and Guenther Steiner appear to cut very different characters. Both former four-wheel racing bigwigs, Coleman was mainly in touring cars while Steiner’s cameo as Haas F1’s founding team principal saw him become a star of Netflix’s Drive to Survive.
Now the pair have teamed up with Ikon Capital to acquire the Tech3 MotoGP team, just months after Formula 1 owner Liberty Media’s takeover of its two-wheeled sibling was approved. And Coleman tells CityAM that they’re going to run the show adhering to one overriding rule.
“We’re super clear not only with what we want to do with this team, but also what we want to do with our investors,” he says. “We just have a ‘no arseholes’ rule. It’s as simple as that.”
Accelerated MotoGP growth
While it is understood that the reported £17.5m price tag slapped on the pit team somewhat underestimates the value of the acquisition, it is nowhere near the figures placed on Formula 1 outfits, with McLaren recently valued at £4bn.
Some suggest that no MotoGP team would sell for less than $50m now that the motorsporting juggernaut Liberty has joined the party.
The new Tech3 team principal Coleman describes Formula 1 at the time of Liberty’s acquisition in 2016 as “dysfunctional”, adding that Mercedes may have been the most valuable team at $500m while “three teams on the grid were worth zero”.
Fast forward to today and you cannot get your hands on one of the 11 teams for less than $1bn.
“While valuations in MotoGP have never reached what they are in Formula 1,” Coleman says, “I do think that the multiples will be the same. All the MotoGP teams make money so the economic foundation of MotoGP is better.
“Over a seven-eight year horizon – if equity values in F1 are $1.5bn-$3bn – I think there’s nothing to stop GP teams being worth more than $150m but they have to adapt – at the moment they’re very much race teams and ultimately they have to function more like franchises.”
Ripping up the rule book
MotoGP often sees satellite teams beating factory teams, with changes set to come in by 2027 to increase overtaking. Tech3’s drivers Enea Bastianini and Maverick Vinales are 13th and 15th respectively in the championship, with the team seventh of 11.
But Steiner and Coleman won’t be ripping up the playbook written by former owner Hervé Poncharal, who will consult from next season after leading one final campaign in 2025.
Coleman insists “2026 is an evolution, not a revolution”, adding that “our relationship with Red Bull and KTM continues”.
“The rider lineup is confirmed and these guys know what they’re doing,” he says. “The next year is a transition year for us as the management team and also for the sport, because the big regulation change is coming for 2027. We need to get a bit more under the table before we start having those kinds of conversations.”
Lifting MotoGP tide
While there’s an insistence that MotoGP was trending upwards regardless of Liberty Media’s fresh involvement in the biking series, it’s undeniable that more people are talking about the sport as a result.
“The macro thesis for Gunther and I is,” Coleman concludes, “we felt that the tide was going to lift all the boats regardless of Liberty.
“We think Liberty is an exceptional partner. We both know first-hand what they’ve done in Formula 1. It’s not going to be a cookie cutter exercise. They are different sports.
“But I think you know the difference is the sporting side of MotoGP is exceptionally well run. It is a fantastic sporting product.
“Liberty have done a very good job of Formula 1, in the sense that in some territories they target eyeballs, and in some territories they target revenue.
“We’ve got to get the interest and the engagement up before you that can be monetised. I think Liberty will serve as an accelerator rather than the Big Bang moment.”