MotoGPCopied

MotoGP's chequered-flag logo dated from the championship's 2002 relaunch and was last tweaked in 2007, when, as The Race pointed out, the first iPhone had only just arrived. In a world of tiny avatars and grandstand banners, the flag held up but the lettering got lost when scaled down. The refresh came as Liberty Media, owner of Formula 1, was closing in on its acquisition of promoter Dorna, and with a stated ambition to move from motorsport to a digital-first global entertainment brand.

The new identity was revealed at the season prizegiving at the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona, after Jorge Martín clinched the title, with a voiceover by Emilia Clarke. It had leaked in black and white days earlier through EU trademark filings. Pentagram designed it, along with matching logos for Moto2, Moto3 and MotoE.

The flag is gone. The logo is now a pure wordmark whose letters are meant to carry the sport: the M is two bikes leaning close together on track, the Os are wheels, the t is the rider on the bike, and GP traces a circuit layout. Around it Pentagram built artwork, motion, a typeface and a verbal identity, under the line the most exciting sport on earth. The Pentagram lead told Creative Boom that motorsport branding is crowded with logos that prioritise sponsor visibility, and that the aim was to cut through with simplicity, motion and storytelling.

Dorna chief executive Carmelo Ezpeleta said the key question had been what MotoGP is, now and in future. Fans were less sure. Motorsport Week reported immediate comparisons with the F1 logo of 2017, in both the typography and the hostile first reaction, and The Race devoted a verdict piece to the inevitable backlash while praising the new typography's playful fluidity and its legibility at small sizes.

The F1 comparison is fair in both directions. Losing the flag hurts, and the letter-as-bike symbolism is more convincing in a press release than at a glance. But as a working mark for screens it is clearly better, and like F1's it will be judged by how it moves, not how it sits.