Le Mans sets MotoGP attendance record at 1000th grand prix

This weekend’s French GP, which is the fifth round of the 2023 season, marks the 1000th grand prix event in the world championship’s history dating back to 1949.

Le Mans is generally one of the better-attended events on the MotoGP calendar, with last year’s French GP welcoming 225,000 fans across the weekend.

Ahead of Sunday’s grand prix at Le Mans, Motorsport.com can reveal the 2023 French GP has set a new attendance record for the series.

Across the weekend, 278,805 fans have come through the gates, starting with 14,900 on Thursday for the pre-event pitlane walk.

On Friday, 58,894 fans came to Le Mans for practice, while 88,319 attended on Saturday for qualifying and the sprint race. Sunday’s crowd is a massive 116,692.

The previous attendance record was the 2015 Czech Grand Prix at Brno, which saw 248,434 fans come to the event. Prior to that, it was 245,039 at Brno in 2007.

This attendance record comes as MotoGP struggles to captivate a mainstream audience and improve spectator numbers at a number of grand prix.

Fans

Photo by: Marc Fleury

Le Mans’ success can be attributed to two things. The first is the fact two riders represent the nation in Johann Zarco and Fabio Quartararo, who won the 2021 world championship to become the country’s first MotoGP title winner.

The second is the job event promoter Claude Michy has done in getting fans to continue to come back to Le Mans for the French GP.

The French GP is one of the most affordable events to attend, with a three-day general admission ticket this year costing €98. That ticket gets access to the circuit for all days of the grand prix and permits seating in some grandstands.

Free bike parking and camping are included in the price, while under-16s can get into the event for free with an adult ticket holder.

The cheapest general admission weekend pass for the next grand prix at Mugello in three weeks’ time costs €160 by comparison.