Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei says Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton asked about buying a MotoGP team after news of the American 💝firm’s takeover of the series was announc🗹ed.

In April of this year, F1 owner Liberty announced a deal to purchase majority ownership of MotoGP worth €4.2🌳 billion, which it hopes to complete at the end of 2024 once it has gained approval from the European Union’s antitrust board.

ജLast month, Liberty a🌳nnounced it had sold off F1 shares worth $825 million to help complete the acquisition.

In wake of the announcement, Maffei said in May Liberty had received “an out꧂pouring of interest” from manufacturers about getting involved in MotoGP.

In recent months there were rumours that Hamilton - a lifelong MotoGP fan - was looking to buy the Gresini Racing squad, though he rubbished this and noted “I haven’t looked that far into” ownership of a𝕴 team when asked about it.

In a Goldman Sachꦅs Communacopia + Techn🍬ology Conference, Maffei said Hamilton did approach Liberty following news of its MotoGP takeover about owning a team.

“I think MotoGP is🥀 an unbelievably exciting product,” Maffei began.

“To see people ridi𒁃ng motorcycles at 220mph, six inches from each other is wild. And the overtaking there is incredibly impresܫsive.

“An𒐪d it’s an exciting product. It’s unfortunately one that is too little known in the United States, and around the world there is interest in ඣAsia and places.

“But the real heart of it has been Spain, Italy, to some degree France. I ෴think there’s an opportunity to expand it.”

He added: “When w🐷e announced it, we had immediately people call up and say ‘I want to buy a team’, incl༒uding people like Lewis Hamilton.

“Why? Because they saw what happened in Formula 1 and they want ꦰto follow.

“We had major distributors call up and say ‘we want to be involved’, and unfortunately I had to tell them ‘we rea💜lly can’t talk about it until we get EU approval’. We’d love to talk once we get it.”

Liberty wants American expansion for MotoGP

It has long been thoug💖ht that one of the first moves for Liberty when it officially owns MotoGP will be to boost its presence in America.

Between 200ཧ8 and 2011, when F1 had no races in the US, MotoGP visited the country twice - and in 2013 it even staged three events there.

In recent years, Liberty has been able to add three American races tꩲo the F1 calendar.

Despite a long history of success for American riders at the very top of motorcyc🌄le grand prix racing, interest in the series h🥀as waned over the years, with the US GP in Austin one of the more poorly attended races on the current MotoGP calendar.

Replicating what it managed with F1 is something Liber﷽ty believes is possible with MotoGP in America.

“We saw what we were able to do with Formula 1 by tell🍎ing the stories, making them humanised, making the stories larger than just about the car, the technology, but also about what the drivers were doing, what was going on behind the scenes - telling those stories, making sure the world understood the breadth of what was going on,” Maffꦛei says.

“But we also did a lot of things to improve the TV experience, improving what you could see on the screen, making our fans understand the stor♔y better.

“All of those are things that canܫ be helped here. An🉐d I think, frankly, growing in the US.

“They have one race in Austin, ♔for which they receive relatively ﷺmodest revenues from TV and the like.

“I think there is an opportunity to improve that, there’s an opportunity perha⛎ps for a second race in the US.

“Those are opportunities that are interesting in ways that look familiar to us from Formula 1 and hopefully we can replicate ♋those𝔉 attractively.”

Liberty’s hopes of snaring American interest again hav๊e been dealt some boosts over the past few seasons.

First, it has a frontrunning grand prix rider in Joe Roberts racing in Moto2, while in MotoGP the US-owned Trackhouse Racing squad joined the grid in 2ඣ024.

Behind th♍e scenes, former NBA chief Dan Rossomondo was installed as Chief Commercial Offi♐cer in 2023.