In the past few weeks, rumors have been growing about a potential sale of Dorna – the promoter of MotoGP. Currently, the majority shareholder is the investment fund Bridgepoint, and one of the entities allegedly interested in the acquisition is Liberty Media – the owner of Formula 1. Carlo Pernat believes that the deal is a matter of time, regardless of who acquires it.
The riders’ manager told Moto.it that there are two possible alternatives: ‘Dorna is officially for sale. A statement was also made, so we are not dreaming, let’s say there are two paths: one is the money from oil, Arab dollars, and the other, on the contrary, is the American history of who runs Formula 1. These are two different paths, I think the Dorna fund, Bridgepoint, has the desire to sell and stop there. So, I am convinced and I will say it first, that by the middle of the season at the latest, you will see that I am right’.
In Pernat’s view, the sale of Dorna is inevitable and will happen in the coming months: ‘And it will be sold, when you sell to people who have money it is always good, but it is necessary to see who they bring in to manage things, because it is not a matter of money, it is a matter of who has more chances of doing well. The fact that it is an Arab fund taking over is a mystery because you do not know who could manage this operation and why they would do it. I don’t mean to say that I hope they sell it, but in my opinion, Dorna has been the owner since 1992, and has done very well because it professionalized everything. In my opinion, it has come to a point where the replacement is more than planned, therefore, in my opinion, there will certainly be a replacement halfway through the year’.