Anyone who has spent time covering both F1 and MotoGP in recent years can tell you that the differences between the two paddocks are numerous.

One is a somewhat sterile conurbation of gleaming hospitality units accessible only to the lucky few, while the other is more open (and therefore more crowded) and less uniform; more real, perhaps.

But, the starkest difference of all is simpler than that: you won't find any GP2 or GP3 teams in the F1 paddock, and no drivers except for those directly affiliated to a team in F1.

MotoGP, meanwhile, inhabits a common space with Moto2 and Moto3, with those involved in each or all of the three classes mixed together in one working environment – a fact that it is all the better for, compared to the isolated and separated GP2 support paddock.

Anyone with knowledge of the history of Grand Prix motorcycle racing will know this is no accident; while MotoGP is often thought as the two-wheeled version of F1, in reality it is the largest and most prestigious class within the wider umbrella of what's formally known as the FIM World Road Racing Championship – hence why it is often referred to as 'the premier class'.

Before 2002, the 500cc class fulfilled that role, with the lesser classes (250cc and 125cc mainly, but for many years also 350cc and 80cc) playing an integral role in the overall show. The idea of having separate paddocks for each class, or for keeping the 500cc teams separate from the rest, would have been alien.

By contrast, the present GP2 Series was only founded in 2005, replacing the defunct International Formula 3000 championship, which only itself became an exclusive support event to F1 grands prix in 1999. GP3, meanwhile, only came into being in 2010, carving out an entirely new niche as the sister series to GP2, with which it shares a paddock and a number of teams.

Of course, Moto2 and Moto3 are also recent inventions, having been formed in 2010 and 2012 respectively to replace the outgoing 250cc and 125cc two-stroke formulae. But both were treated as rebranded continuations of their predecessors, rather than starting afresh from year zero.

Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Ajo Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography

The benefits of a wholly integrated paddock for anyone who has been fortunate enough to pay a visit to a MotoGP race are clear to see. While the top class still dominates press coverage – as you would expect – leading journalists take Moto2 and Moto3 just as seriously as the main event.

No doubt, this has been fostered by the leading lights in the lower classes getting the opportunity to appear in press conferences alongside the household names (for example, Brad Binder and Alex Rins joining the four 'aliens' of MotoGP at Aragon last year).

While the Moto2 and Moto3 post-race press conferences are kept separate, the fact they take place in the same area as the MotoGP ones encourages a healthy number of journalists to go along, ask questions and get to know the riders in question long before their ascent to the highest level.

All of this is a virtuous cycle: it means riders get far more press coverage than their GP2 and GP3 counterparts, making sponsorship for teams easier to raise. That in turn helps create a more meritocratic environment, with far fewer riders present solely by virtue of the budgets they are able to bring to the table than is the case in GP3, or especially GP2.

Contrast this to F1 – the support paddock may as well be situated on the moon for all the attention it receives from the regular grand prix press pack, barring a couple of notable exceptions.

At the GP2 press conferences I attended last year, which are held in the hospitality tent where drivers and team staff hang out between races and briefings, the highest number of journalists I ever counted besides myself was four; on one occasion – Silverstone of all places – it was just one.

This may sound pretty inconsequential, but the effects are corrosive. Drivers in GP2 and GP3 are only introduced to most F1 media when they become affiliated with an F1 team, and are allowed inside the gated community in their capacity as a test or a reserve driver.

By then, of course, a driver usually has the necessary backing to take them all the way (or at least as far as their talent warrants). But for the rest, they remained tucked away in the support paddock, where few F1 journalists ever make the effort to root them out and tell their story.

Alexander Albon, ART Grand Prix, leads Charles Leclerc, ART Grand Prix and Nyck De Vries, ART Grand Prix, at the start Photo by: GP3 Media Service

When press coverage of the leading lights in GP2 and GP3 (except when they are being connected to race seats in F1, naturally) is so scarce, it's small wonder so many struggle to raise the budgets they need to stay in single-seaters, and find themselves instead seduced by the prospect of a fully-funded manufacturer drive in a series like WEC or the DTM.

Again, the contrast with MotoGP is stark. In 2017, no fewer than four Moto2 riders – Alex Rins, Sam Lowes, Johann Zarco and Jonas Folger – step up to the premier class. In GP2, that number is likely to be zero, with any hopes of Jordan King getting a Manor seat taking a hefty blow in the wake of the Banbury-based team falling into administration.

How can this unfortunate state of affairs be remedied? Taking the pressure off the smaller F1 teams to sign pay drivers remains the ideal long-term solution, but that's a topic for another column. Equally, the idea of merging the F1 paddock with the support paddock – as beneficial as that would be for those competing in GP2 and GP3 – is almost equally as unfeasible.

So, assuming we're stuck with an entirely separate support paddock, the logical thing is to bring the drivers to the F1 press pack, if the F1 press pack is reluctant bring itself to the drivers.

This would be easily achievable. First, what's needed is the creation of a mixed interview zone on Thursdays before each grand prix, to be held in the F1 media centre, with a selection of six or eight GP2 and GP3 drivers making the (compulsory) voyage on some sort of rotation across the year.

Then, instead of hosting the GP2 and GP3 post-race press conferences in the GP2 hospitality tent in front of three rows of empty chairs, take a leaf out of MotoGP's book and host them in the same room as the F1 press conferences, and broadcast them to the F1 media centre. Even if only five percent of those present pay any sort of attention, it would represent a big step forward from the present situation.

GP2 and GP3 are both followed and loved by a small-but-passionate core of fans for the great racing they produce, but we all too seldom get to hear the stories behind the action.

It's time this changed, and there's no better place to look than MotoGP to see the role junior series can play when they are given the attention they deserve.