Lewis Hamilton expressed interest in buying a MotoGP team claims Liberty Media boss

Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei claimed that seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton had expressed interest in buying a MotoGP team. The American conglomerate became the owner of Formula One at the end of the 2016 season and acquired the two-wheeler series, MotoGP in April this year after it bought 86% of the stocks of Dorna Sports, which had owned the series since 1992.

In a deal worth $4.2 billion, the remaining 14% of stocks will remain with MotoGP and last month Liberty Media announced that it had sold its stake worth $825 million in F1.

While appearing at a Goldman Sachs Communacopia+ Technology Conference held on September 11, Maffei said that Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton did make an approach to buy a MotoGP team (as quoted by "Crash.net"):

“When we announced it, we had immediately people call up and say ‘I want to buy a team’, including people like Lewis Hamilton. Why? Because they saw what happened in Formula 1 and they want to follow," Maffei said.

“We had major distributors call up and say ‘we want to be involved’, and unfortunately I had to tell them ‘we really can’t talk about it until we get EU approval’. We’d love to talk once we get it,” he added.

The Liberty Media CEO also talked about the conglomerate's intention to invest in the two-wheel series and that he could envision growth for the sport in America, similar to its four-wheel counterpart:

“I think, frankly, growing in the US - they have one race in Austin for which they receive relatively modest revenues from TV and the like. The opportunity perhaps for a second race in the US. All of those, I think, are interesting in ways that look familiar to us from Formula 1 and hope we can replicate here,” Maffei commented.

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Lewis Hamilton on his intention to buy a MotoGP team

In July this year, Lewis Hamilton said that he would be interested in buying a MotoGP team if the opportunity arose.

Talking about his love for the series during the British GP earlier this year, the seven-time Formula 1 champion said (via Motorsport.com):

“I'm interested in the potential growth of the sport, but I haven't looked that far into it just yet . But anything is possible. I'm definitely interested, as I said before, about equity and the Broncos was already a first step into team ownership. And so, I think over the next five to ten years there will be a little bit more. We'll see,” Hamilton said.

Lewis Hamilton was reportedly linked to buying the Gresini Racing team that currently employs the MotoGP legend, Marc Marquez. The 39-year-old has been investing in various sports as he has a stake in the NFL team Denver Broncos since 2022 and is also the founder of Team X44 in the Extreme E series.