MotoGP: Who are Dorna Sports and Carmelo Ezpeleta really?

Today, even if almost all decisions are taken unanimously with the FIM, the MSMA and theIRTA, Dorna Sports, as the exclusive holder of the commercial and television rights to the FIM Road Racing Grand Prix World Championship (MotoGP™) remains the main structure when it comes to the pinnacle of motorcycle racing.

We are also interested in the journey of this company, as well as that of the man who runs it, Carmelo Ezpeleta.

The Spanish company Dorna Sports is what we can call the promoter of the Motorcycle Grand Prix World Championship. With its partners which are the FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme), the MSMA (Motorcycle Sports Manufacturers' Association) and theIRTA (International Racing Team Association), it decides everything, from the calendar to the regulations including the allocation of passes, but above all, it has developed and professionalized the motorcycle Grands Prix to make it today a spectacle which, despite a difficult context, rivals Formula 1 and attracts more and more viewers from all over the world.

Its first foray into the world of motorcycling dates back to October 1990, when it responded to a call for tenders issued by the FIM to take charge and develop the television rights to the Grands Prix.

©Mundo Deportivo October 23, 1990

In the second round of this call for tenders to which seven companies responded, it was ultimately “Dorna Sports Promotion» who is chosen, promising 30 million dollars in the long term against, among others, Bernie Ecclestone and Maurizio Flamini.

The contract with the company “Dorna Promoción del Deporte” was definitively signed on February 26, 1991 in Madrid by the FIM, to finalize a contract covering TV rights and marketing for the races from 1993 to 1997.

Who is this Spanish company, hitherto unknown in the world of Grand Prix?

“Dorna Promoción del Deporte” was created in 1988 by the Dorna group, itself created in 1974 by Carlos Garcia Pardo, his brother Manuel García Pardo and José Antonio Aguirre.
Carlos García Pardo, president of the Dorna company, originally a civil engineer and horse lover, has what is commonly called business acumen and quickly multiplies the creation of businesses (real estate, gas stations, media, consulting ) which will then be very highly valued by the Banesto bank (Banco Español de Crédito).

Initially, “Dorna Promoción del Deporte” was headed by Carlos and Manuel García Pardo, José Luis Peña and José Ramón Guimarans with the aim, as its name suggests, of promoting sport, in this case by managing sports rights and initially serving as intermediaries in the transfers of football players (Zubizarreta from Bilbao to Barcelona then 'Paco' Llorente from Atlético de Madrid to Real Madrid).

Carlos García Pardo is indeed a visionary and quickly becomes aware of the media and financial potential of sport, in a Spain still in the Middle Ages in this area.

“I believe there is a lot of ignorance about what “Dorna Promoción del Deporte” is. I believe that sport has always been considered, by serious or financial groups – in quotes – as an economic by-product, but “Dorna Promoción del Deporte” is not smoke. Dorna Promoción del Deporte is one of the top three companies in the world in sports “marketing” and I think that financial institutions, in general, misunderstand this and think that it is better to have a field in La Castellana. It's a market that is just beginning and it's a market in which, although it seems impossible, we have really positioned ourselves in one year, and I would say that we have conquered 80% of the national market in static television advertising. And right now in the world, I think we're second. There's a company that's primarily focused on golf and tennis, there's ISL, which works with the Olympic Committee on everything, and there's Dorna. And it's a Spanish company. Samaranch told me one day that, for the first time, there was a Spanish company, a Spanish multinational in the sports sector. »

Very quickly, the Banesto bank bought 50% of the company, which allowed the latter to acquire, among other things, the static advertising rights of 16 NBA teams, Real Madrid and a few other football clubs, the Women's Davis Cup, as well as English Football Premier League static advertising. She pulled out all the stops by also creating the AD Time rotating advertising system and selling it to 11 American baseball teams, then launching the ADO project, “Association of Olympic Sports”…

The acquisition of television rights to the motorcycle Grands Prix is therefore only one of the branches of its enormous activity, since, at the beginning of the 90s, “Dorna Promoción del Deporte” is quite simply considered by its manager as the third global sports marketing group.

This is what partly explains a “picturesque” presentation to the international press in May 91, as a prelude to the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez…

Nick Harris says: “during a chaotic press conference in Jerez in 1991, a Spanish company named Dorna Promoción del Deporte organized a media presentation to explain why their offer of $30 million to buy the television rights to the Grands Prix had been accepted by the FIM. The young Spanish translator was overwhelmed by the weight of the questions posed to the non-English speaking representatives of Dorna. At one point, Dorna's marketing director, Jaume Roures, slammed his fist on the table. »
Everyone thought he was tired of the anti-Dorna questions but he was actually trying to listen to the report of the Cadiz-Barcelona football match on the radio... since Dorna was also heavily involved in football.

This poor entry into Dorna Promocion del Deporte goes back to the FIM but has no consequences. The Spanish company is indeed raising the bar in June at Jarama, during a European Grand Prix replacing the Yugoslav Grand Prix in Rijeka.

Carmelo Ezpeleta (hired to manage the motorcycle part of the Spanish company) explains the words of Dorna Promoción del Deporte (Mundo Deportivo): “We don’t organize the race. This is done by RACE (Real Automóvil Club de España). Simply, we bet on it and we were responsible for financing it, finding sponsors and taking care of the promotion. We believe that much more can be done than has been done so far in this area. Currently, we contribute 3 million pesetas to the FIM and it is committed to donating 000% for the sport and keeping only 80% for its expenses. We believe that all objections are due to not knowing us. Now is obviously not the time to reveal our strategy, but we are going to spring more than one surprise. We will put on sale 20 tickets for the grandstand and 15 “Lawn” tickets. And we think we can sell them all. »

So who is Carmelo Ezpeleta, until now little known in the world of Grands Prix?

Born in 1946 in Barcelona, the young Spaniard became passionate about motor sports at the age of 5, when his father, a military engineer, took him to see Juan Manuel Fangio racing in Formula 1 on the “Diagonal” of the Pedralbes circuit of the Catalan city.

While waiting to be able to buy his first motorcycle (against the advice of his father but with the help of his mother), Carmelo Ezpeleta devotes himself to "cesta punta", where he reaches a national level, then continues his engineering studies.

His motorcycle career was very brief, counting only a few races, the first on a Montesa 250.

For the record, 50 years later, Hervé Poncharal and Guy Coulon offered him this same completely restored model. It is this motorcycle that sits in his office in Madrid, the head office of Dorna Sports.

Photo credit: Manuel Casamayón

Carmelo Ezpeleta quickly switched to the car, in this case an R8 TS ex-Antonio Zanini with which he participated in the Cup in 1972 and 1973: “I was much better in a car than on a motorbike”. But again, this is not the start of a great career, at least directly, because this will indirectly be a key element of his current success.

Indeed, at that time, there was only one permanent circuit in Spain, Jarama, near Madrid. However, the young sportsman won a Formula single-seater driving course in Nogaro and discovered there that there were more modest circuits in France, without grandstands, without control towers and without boxes. He then decided to build one, near Barcelona, without having the first peseta to finance it...

It was there, at the age of 26, that we discovered his entrepreneurial talent: a cousin gave him unbuildable land if he financed the circuit and, for this, Carmelo Ezpeleta launched a subscription with fans and sports teams. mechanics from the regions of Barcelona, Aragón, Valencia and the Balearic Islands, ready to pay 20 pesetas.

In the end, 25 people responded and brought 000 million pesetas: 9 kilometers south of Barcelona, the Calafat circuit was built in September 150!

Crowned with this first feat of arms which also allowed him to interact with the entire world of Spanish motor sports, Carmelo Ezpeleta then took charge of the Jarama circuit in the spring of 1978. He remained there for 10 years and, for the record , it was during this period that he met his wife but also Carlos Sainz, as director of all sporting activities of the Real Automobile Club of Spain (RACE), therefore among others of the Ford-RACE team which aligned Carlos Sainz in the World Rally Championship in 1987 and 1988.

Carlos Sainz: “Few people know that thanks to Carmelo Ezpeleta I was able to do my first rallies in the World Cup. Without his help, determination and confidence, I probably would not have been able to get to where I did. He was the director of the Ford team when I did my first Portugal, today we are lucky that he manages Dorna, a company that manages the world of MotoGP. He's always an example, you always learn from him. This photo is my little tribute to a great friend. Thank you very much Carmelo! »

He will also be on the side of Bernie Ecclestone and the British teams united in the FOCA (Formula One Constructors Association) during the famous “pirate” 1980 Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama, against Ferrari, Renault and the official teams favorable to FISA and Jean-Marie Balestre. As circuit director and representative of RACE, he offered in vain to pay the fines imposed on drivers who boycotted the briefing to protest against the announced removal of aerodynamic skirts from F1.

Then RACE, owner of the circuit and organizer, overrode FISA and confiscated its sporting prerogatives from the Spanish federation (affiliated to FISA) and decreed that the race would be contested under the FIA label, which circumvented the threat of license suspensions mentioned. by Jean-Marie Balestre. During these clashes between the governing bodies, the drivers and mechanics play football on the starting line...

As an enthusiast, Carmelo Ezpeleta never really gave up on competition and was even seen in 1984 participating with Antonio Zanini in the Baja Monteblancos as co-driver of a Peugeot 505 Turbo.
The following year, it was still with the same driver but in a Ferrari 308 GTB Michelotto Group B prepared for the occasion (abandonment following ignition problems and overheating in the passenger compartment) that he participates in this 1000 kilometer rally-raid departing from Zaragoza.

In 1986, he repeated this experience with Antonio Zanini in the Baja Monteblancos, this time in a Ford RS 200 a little more adapted than the Ferrari...

In 1987, he was called to supervise the creation of the famous Catalunya-Barcelona circuit, in Granollers.

In 1988, we found him with Carlos Sainz at the Baja Monteblancos, still in a Ford RS 200.

In March 1991, Carmelo Ezpeleta joined Dorna Promoción del Deporte to manage the motorcycle part of the Spanish company and immediately had to deal with the FIM-Ecclestone-IRTA-Dorna imbroglio over television rights…

“Ecclestone is a very intelligent guy. When he presented himself as a candidate to take the television rights of the FIM, knowing that the relations between the FIM and the team leaders, who are associated through the IRTA, were not good, he also went to IRTA and bought their rights. So there were two FIM contracts, one with the teams, which involved Ecclestone, and the other with us, on television. One thing could not be done without the other. Dorna's first appearance in 1991 at Jerez was chaos (see above). Everyone was in favor of Ecclestone.
But we were a bit lucky because the Yugoslav Grand Prix was canceled due to the war. We therefore asked the FIM to let us do a Grand Prix in Jarama to replace it. Dorna organized it. And we succeeded very well. The pilots were happy. For the press, we made a large air-conditioned tent. And it seemed to them that we were less bad…”
“Then, throughout the summer of 1991, I was with Ecclestone, who I already knew, of course. “ Look, Bernie, you have this and I have this. If we clash, it will be a mess. It will be a never-ending fight. You are financially strong, but Dorna has Banesto behind her. Let’s try to get together.” And we did it quickly. But it was also necessary to convince each other's partners, who were irreconcilable enemies: the FIM and the IRTA. We argued until December. We finally reached an agreement and we started in 1992, a year before the time planned by the FIM. I learned a lot from Bernie. »

The rest of the story is a continuous progression towards optimal management of the Grands Prix, until obtaining the current four-headed organization which makes motorcycle competition as attractive for the spectator as for the investor: never the races have never been so exciting and profitable!

During these three decades, there have of course also been difficult times, both on the track with deaths despite the enormous improvement in safety, and off the track with for example the forced transition from Banesto to Banco Santander when the central bank of Spain discovers that the president of the partner bank, Mario Conde, concealed nearly 4 billion euros in losses from his shareholders.

In 1998, for an estimated sum of 80 million, CVC (A subsidiary of Citibank) bought 71% of Dorna Promoción del Deporte, which was losing money, and renamed the Spanish company Dorna Sports. Carmelo Ezpeleta becomes the CEO and one of the shareholders.

In 2006, CVC Capital Partners bought SLEC, owner of Formula 1, but the European Commission could then consider that managing the two disciplines constitutes a monopoly situation. As a result, CVC sells Dorna Sports to Bridgepoint for a sum estimated between 400 and 500 million euros.

In 2012, Bridgepoint sold 39% of Dorna to the Canadian pension fund CPPIB (Canada Pension Plan Investment Board).

Today, Dorna Sports is the exclusive commercial and television rights holder for the FIM Road Racing Grand Prix World Championship (MotoGP™), as well as the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK), FIM CEV Repsol , the Idemitsu Asia Talent Cup, the Northern Talent Cup and the British Talent Cup. Dorna is also co-organizer of the Red Bull MotoGP™ Rookies Cup since its creation in 2007, and since 2019 of the FIM Enel MotoE™ World Cup.

Dorna Sports, which has a contract with the FIM, holds the MotoGP™ rights until 2041 and the Superbike rights until 2036.

Currently, the main shareholders of the company are funds managed by Bridgepoint Capital and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, but Dorna Sports is actually managed by 4 men, Carmelo Ezpeleta, its CEO, Enrique Aldama, Chief of operations and finance, Manel Arroyo, Managing Director, and Pau Serracanta, Managing Director, with the help of 280 full-time employees and 300 other part-time professionals.

All decisions are taken almost unanimously by the Grand Prix Commission which brings Dorna Sports, the FIM, MSMA and IRTA.

“We have many meetings, and we created the Grand Prix Commission, where all the parties are. I am the chair and I have a casting vote, and by reaching an agreement with another member, we could change whatever we want. But I never used it. I like to negotiate. I would rather find an agreement than win and disappoint a lot of people. »

Today, despite the unprecedented Covid-19 crisis, and thanks to this united organization desired by Carmelo Ezpeleta, the history of the Grands Prix can continue...