The fate of MotoGP ‘grid girls’ confirmed after Liberty takeover

F1 stopped using ‘grid girls’ after it was taken over by Liberty Media.

But, there are currently no plans to axe the umbrella-holding women from the MotoGP starting grid.

Liberty have acquired 86% of Dorna Sports and MotoGP, uniting the world’s top two-wheel and four-wheel racing series under the same banner.

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Questions have arisen about whether some changes that have been made to F1 by Liberty could be replicated in MotoGP.

Street circuits, used in F1 as a way to bring the race closer to a famous city like Las Vegas, is not something that can cross over.

And another tradition will not be tampered with, it appears.

Carmelo Ezpeleta, the CEO of Dorna, was quizzed about the future of ‘grid girls’.

“I think it’s a matter of freedom,” he told GPOne.

“We can’t tell anyone that they can’t be there.

“Banning umbrella girls I think would be a gesture against women, not in their favour.”

When F1 stopped using grid girls in 2018, they announced that “this custom does not resonate with our brand values and clearly is at odds with modern day societal norms”.

But the change did attract some controversy, with some former grid girls speaking out against the decision.

Melissa James told CNN after losing her job on the grid: “I absolutely loved it. You want me to wear a super comfortable outfit and go to the VIP areas and watch what I was already going to pay to watch?

“Yeah, that’s fine by me. It was a dream job.”

She added: “You’re not just standing there on the concrete. You’re meeting fans, you’re posing with photos and, because you’ve got the branding on your clothes, it’s going out on Instagram.

“Saying that we’re just a pretty face is absolutely ludicrous. We’re saleswomen at the end of the day. We need to learn how to talk to people and get people on board with the product.”

But, for now, Dorna clearly has no plans to change the custom of ‘grid girls’ in MotoGP.