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If all goes according to plan, Dorna will come under the control of Liberty Media by the end of the year. The American group has shelled out 4.2 billion euros to acquire 86 percent of the Spanish company that holds the MotoGP and SBK rights. That means the remaining 14 percent will remain in the hands of the current management team headed by Ezpeleta. Carmelo has no desire to leave his creature even after the acquisition: he will remain CEO as the headquarters will continue to be in Madrid.
"I haven't sold anything, I'm staying," Ezpeleta made clear in an interview granted to La Gazzetta dello Sport, "If Liberty has been looking for us, we have been looking for Liberty as well. It is important for us to have access to their resources and knowledge, to better tell the story of our championship."
The goal is clearly to grow, but how? "To explain even better what a wonderful sport it is, to get to places we haven't reached yet," was the answer from the Spanish manager, who wants to be part of the project.
Dorna will not be swallowed up by Formula 1. "We are two companies in the same group, but it ends here, there will be no people working for both ," Ezpeleta explained, " Liberty is happy with the way we have run the company, we will continue with our own people, independent of Formula 1.
And with Don Carmelo at the helm. "For the moment I will remain," he underlined, "but in July I will be 78 years old, and although, thank God, I feel great, I will not be able to stay forever. But on the point there is no problem, Dorna can go on just fine with or without me."
The last line is on the possibility of a "shared" GP between MotoGP and F1. "It's not that if you now belong to the same group the difficulties we had in thinking about it disappear. But it is an idea that we could continue to develop."
