MOTOGP
Liberty Puts MotoGP on Formula 1’s Austin Stage
Liberty Media will run a 20-minute MotoGP demonstration at COTA during the F1 United States GP, while the championship races in Australia.
MotoGP will run four premier-class bikes at Circuit of The Americas on Saturday, 24 October, in a 20-minute demonstration before Formula 1 practice. The championship itself will be in Australia that same weekend, so the people on the Austin grid are test riders, a Hall of Famer, and a Superbike champion booked for 2027.
Liberty Media owns both series. The parent is putting MotoGP in front of a Formula 1 crowd it already knows how to fill, and the next United States MotoGP round is already dated for April 23-25, 2027.
Twenty Minutes Before Formula 1 Practice
The run is booked from 11:40 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. CDT, a 20-minute window on Saturday ahead of Formula 1 Free Practice 3. MotoGP called it the first time on a Formula 1 weekend that its bikes and fan activations will sit inside a Grand Prix, in front of more than 400,000 fans expected across the event.
Formula 1’s published timetable for the MSC Cruises United States Grand Prix still shows the third practice session at 12:30 p.m. local, which leaves 30 minutes after the bikes leave the circuit. Masters Historic racing occupies 10:10 to 10:40 a.m. The MotoGP laps sit in the hole between that race and FP3, then Formula 1 qualifying starts at 4:00 p.m. and Sunday’s Grand Prix is 56 laps from 3:00 p.m. on the 5.513 km track.
THE MACHINES
- Top speed: MotoGP says the bikes are capable of speeds exceeding 225 mph.
- Lean angle: Riders can put them over at more than 60 degrees.
- Noise: The same machines can produce more than 130 decibels.
- The slot: High-speed laps only, no race, no points, no championship riders.
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing said Dani Pedrosa will bring the RC16. That is the factory prototype, not a show bike, and it will be ridden in the same 20-minute window as a Ducati, a Yamaha, and a Trackhouse Aprilia.
Liberty Media Now Owns Both Series
On July 3, 2025, Liberty Media completed its acquisition of Dorna, the commercial rights holder of MotoGP. After the close, Liberty said its Formula One Group is made up of Formula 1, MotoGP, and Quint. Carmelo Ezpeleta stayed in charge of the motorcycle side. The operating company now presents itself as MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group.
THE JULY 2025 DEAL
- The close: Liberty finished the Dorna purchase on July 3, 2025.
- The group: Formula 1, MotoGP, and Quint now sit in the same Formula One Group.
- The pitch: CEO Derek Chang called MotoGP a premium sports asset with room to grow by going after a wider global audience.
- The factory visit: Chang and the Ezpeletas were in Japan on October 6, two weeks before the Austin announcement.
Chang, Carmelo Ezpeleta, and vice CEO Carlos Ezpeleta visited Yamaha Motor headquarters in Iwata after the Grand Prix of Japan, round 15. Yamaha Motor president Motofumi Shitara met them. Yamaha said the talks covered expanding MotoGP’s market reach and the pipeline of young riders through Moto3. Ten days later, MotoGP announced the COTA demonstration.
That sequence is the point of Saturday’s laps. Liberty already packed Austin for Formula 1. MotoGP still needs that crowd to treat two wheels as more than a curiosity on the way to FP3.
Who Is Riding When the Grid Is in Australia?
The four names are Dani Pedrosa on a KTM, Nicolo Bulega on a Ducati, Andrea Dovizioso on a Yamaha, and Lorenzo Savadori on a SuperFile Trackhouse machine. None of them is in the 2026 title fight. Pedrosa is a Hall of Fame inductee and KTM test rider with three Grand Prix world titles in 125cc and 250cc. Bulega is the current WorldSBK World Champion and a signed 2027 rider for Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team. Dovizioso and Savadori are premier-class test riders for Yamaha and Trackhouse.
THE FOUR RIDERS
| Rider | Bike / team | Why he is in Austin |
|---|---|---|
| Dani Pedrosa | KTM | Hall of Fame test rider, three 125cc and 250cc world titles |
| Nicolo Bulega | Ducati | WorldSBK champion, 2027 VR46 MotoGP rider |
| Andrea Dovizioso | Yamaha | MotoGP test rider |
| Lorenzo Savadori | SuperFile Trackhouse | MotoGP test rider for the American team |
Bulega is the only one who will come back as a full-time premier-class rider in 2027. He already told MotoGP the laps are a glimpse of that return. Pedrosa is the name Formula 1 spectators may recognise. Dovizioso and Savadori are there because the race teams cannot be.
Phillip Island Has the Two-Point Title Fight
Round 18 of MotoGP is the Red Bull Grand Prix of Australia at Phillip Island, also on October 23-25. Official championship notes say two points separate Martin and Marquez, Jorge Martin on the Aprilia and Marc Marquez on the factory Ducati. Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix is also listed as round 18 of its 2026 season. The calendars collided, and the parent company chose a scratch squad for Texas rather than move a flyaway.
SATURDAY ON TWO CALENDARS
- October 24, 2026, 10:50 a.m. AEDT: MotoGP qualifying begins at Phillip Island.
- October 24, 2026, 11:40 a.m. CDT: Pedrosa, Bulega, Dovizioso, and Savadori start the COTA demonstration.
- October 24, 2026, 12:00 p.m. CDT: The Austin run ends, 30 minutes before Formula 1 FP3.
- October 24, 2026, 3:00 p.m. AEDT: The Australian Tissot Sprint starts at Phillip Island.
- October 25, 2026, 2:00 p.m. AEDT: The Australian Grand Prix starts, with Formula 1’s Austin race at 3:00 p.m. CDT the same afternoon.
The first public reaction to MotoGP’s own post was a jolt that Marquez, Marco Bezzecchi, and the rest of the grid might be asked to appear in Texas and then race in Victoria. They will not. The championship stays Down Under. Austin gets the test department, and that is the honest version of “two wheels meet four.”
Trackhouse Puts an American Bike on the F1 Stage
Savadori’s entry is the American fingerprint. SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP Team is the United States squad on the Aprilia grid, and its test rider is the one doing laps in front of Formula 1’s Texas crowd. The race team cannot join him. MotoGP’s Australian Thursday plan already names Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez for the Phillip Island press conference, alongside Marco Bezzecchi and Jack Miller.
Trackhouse’s own COTA race report from March 29 records the 2026 Grand Prix of the United States as round 3 of 22 on this same 5.513 km circuit, with Fernandez classified eighth. That weekend already happened. Saturday’s demonstration is not filling a hole left by a missing American round. It is putting a Trackhouse bike in front of people who bought Formula 1 tickets, six months before the next MotoGP date at the same place.
For Justin Marks’ team, that is useful even if Savadori never sees a chequered flag. The F1 crowd is larger than a typical MotoGP gate, and the only U.S. constructor-adjacent squad on the premier-class roster gets 20 minutes of noise in the same bowl those fans already treat as a festival.
Fan Zone Bikes Stay Out Through Sunday
MotoGP said teams and riders will be on site from Thursday through Sunday, not only for the Saturday laps. A dedicated fan activation in the circuit Fan Zone will run through the weekend with the four motorcycles on display. The on-track piece is the loud one. The commercial piece is the paddock that stays after the bikes are loaded.
WHAT FANS CAN SEE
- Saturday laps: Four premier-class machines from 11:40 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. CDT, before FP3.
- Fan Zone: The same four bikes on display through the weekend, with a chance to get closer than a grandstand seat allows.
- Paddock days: MotoGP people on site Thursday through Sunday, overlapping F1’s full Austin programme.
- The sound: More than 130 decibels, which is the part Pedrosa keeps telling people they cannot get from a screen.
The speed, the sound and the performance of these bikes is something you have to experience in person, and I’m looking forward to sharing that with everyone in Austin.
Dani Pedrosa, KTM test rider, MotoGP announcement
Pedrosa also called COTA one of the most iconic circuits in the world and treated the United States Grand Prix crowd as the reason to do the job. That is a test rider talking like a promoter, which is what the weekend asks of him.
MotoGP’s Next COTA Date Is April 23-25
The championship’s next appointment at this circuit is already fixed: the Grand Prix of the United States, April 23-25, 2027. Bulega said the Saturday laps should show what fans can expect when he comes back with MotoGP. He is not selling a mystery calendar. He is selling a date that is six months after this Formula 1 weekend, on a track that hosted round 3 of the current season in late March.
We’re looking forward to putting on a great show and giving fans a glimpse of what they can expect when I return with MotoGP to Austin in 2027.
Nicolo Bulega, 2027 Pertamina Enduro VR46 rider, MotoGP announcement
MotoGP put the same message on its own account when the release went out on 20 October.
Two wheels meet four 🏍️🏎️#MotoGP will bring the world's fastest motorcycles to the @F1 #USGP for a high-speed demonstration on Saturday! 🏁#SpeedLapsUSA https://t.co/uNmhhCnIwG
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 20, 2026
Liberty does not need Austin to discover motorcycles. It needs a slice of Formula 1’s Texas weekend to show up in April, when the bikes are here for a race instead of a gap in the support timetable. Pedrosa, Bulega, Dovizioso, and Savadori have 20 minutes on Saturday to make that case at more than 130 decibels.
