It has been confirmed to The Race that Amazon Prime Video’s MotoGP Unlimited documentary series will not have a second season shot in 2022.
The filming on the behind-the-scenes series has been paused while the results of season one, shot last year and aired for the first time last month, are analysed by Amazon, MotoGP series promoters Dorna, and production company Mediapro Studios.
That news was confirmed by Dorna managing director Manel Arroyo, and comes following a shaky launch for the series’ debut season in March.
“The status is that we are now analysing how the first season of Unlimited has worked,” the veteran sports promoter told The Race at the Spanish Grand Prix, “and together with Mediapro Studios and Amazon what we are doing is not being in a hurry.
“We are going to shoot the second season in 2023, and in the meantime we’re going to launch some profiles of riders, docus about riders, with the first one in process about Marc. This is the way we’re going to follow this year.”
Season one was plagued with a number of issues around the launch – including voice dubbing replacing any option to watch with subtitles in English, a move that left many fans calling the show ‘unwatchable’ until Amazon eventually moved to fix the problem.
The series was also aired after the start of the 2022 MotoGP season, launching after the first race in Qatar had already taken place rather than being available to view in the weeks leading up to the opening round – which has been the case for F1’s ultra-successful Netflix show Drive to Survive.
With that in mind, Dorna says that detailed feedback from the first season (which it says isn’t yet available to it) needs to be closely examined before filming on the follow-up can be carried out.
“We still don’t have much data,” said Arroyo, “because as happens with all TV series and streaming platforms, there isn’t data available. You can see this with Amazon, Netflix, HBO.
“But clearly there is an interest to continue to follow the process, but what we need is to understand what the new fans are expecting and how we can make some changes of the product to fix perfectly what the audience needs and wants.”
However, there is some good news potentially on the horizon for fans, with Arroyo also confirming to The Race that one key criticism of the series – that Amazon did not make it available in Latin and South America or in the Asia-Pacific regions – should soon be rectified.
“We are now working on the final details to launch in the rest of the markets,” he confirmed, “and there will be something announced very soon, I hope.”
