MotoGP’s most famous riders make fortunes compared to the salaries of most people on earth. But this year, as in 2020 and 2021, payrolls have seen a notable decline.
The economic consequences of the pandemic are still being felt, with an overall decline of around 20% compared to recent years. But the pay cuts for riders in recent years are not only justified by the pandemic. Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo or Valentino Rossi have earned many millions of euros and are now off the starting line-up, which also contributes to the salary cut on the starting line-up.
According to Motorsport.com, current annual salaries for riders in MotoGP are around €47 million, up from €58 million in 2018.
Marc Márquez leads at €15m a year (not including awards for titles or wins), more than twice as much as runner-up Joan Mir at €6.5m a year. For the other Honda riders Pol Espargaró, Takaaki Nakagami and Alex Márquez, the Japanese factory has to split an amount of over 3 million euros between the three and propose the same online website.
Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins earn the same amount annually, around 4 million. The same source reveals that Franco Morbidelli earns less than one and a half million euros a year and that the salaries of “Pecco” Bagnaia, Jack Miller, Johann Zarco, Jorge Martín and Enea Bastianini at Ducati are around 3.8 million euros. The same exercise was carried out for KTM, which reportedly spends €3.6 million in salaries for its four riders. In this reckoning we also highlight the 4 million euros that Aprilia split between its athletes: Aleix Espargaró and Maverick Viñales. The latter has given up a contract worth around eight million euros with Yamaha to sign for the Noale factory.