The salary hit MotoGP riders face in 2022

In 2018, MotoGP teams paid more than 58 million euros to the 24 riders who took part in the championship during the season, a figure that in 2022 will be reduced to just over 47 million - a reduction of almost 20%.

The main reason why the riders' salaries have dropped by almost 11.5 million euros over the last three years was none other than the COVID-19 pandemic, which in 2020 hit the coffers of all the players involved in the championship extremely hard. Manufacturers stopped their factories and closed their dealerships; motorbike sales plummeted, and the delay in the start of the world championship until mid-July pushed promoters and teams to the limit as a result of the lack of exposure.

Another factor was the retirement of stars such as Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo and, more recently, Valentino Rossi - all of them preceded by an enviable track record in many cases, proportional to the salary to be received. Driven by the coronavirus, Ducati undertook a radical change of philosophy, from paying millionaire salaries to its riders, to focusing its investment on the bike, and on increasing the number of riders under its umbrella.

PLUS: How Ducati's expanded roster will threaten MotoGP's balance in 2022

The new consumer habits of the audience, and the change in the nature of the relationship that large corporations seek with the end customer - engagement, especially through social networks - has made the traditional model of sponsorship, which was based on placing a sticker on the bike, obsolete. This, in turn, has also led to a drop in the amounts paid by the brands to the teams.

During the last few months of 2021, Autosport spoke to team members, managers and lawyers involved in the championship, as well as some of the riders in the world championship, to get an approximate picture of the salary mass of the MotoGP grid in 2018 and to project what it will look like in 2022.

The conclusion is that, three years ago, the riders were paid 58.5 million euros, an average of around 2.4 million per rider. In 2022, the 24 riders taking part in the MotoGP world championship will be paid 47,150,000 euros, an average of 1.96m. This equates to a 19.45% decrease.

Current riders are being paid less than in the pre-pandemic times of 2018, with a 19.45% drop overall

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The average figure of almost two million per head may seem more than reasonable despite the fact that these are top-level sportsmen and women who put their lives on the line every grand prix weekend. However, as is the case in most disciplines, huge salary imbalances mean that some riders are racing practically for free.

In 2018, the biggest slice of the cake was shared by five megastars: Jorge Lorenzo, who was paid €15 million by Ducati; Marc Marquez, who was paid ten million by Honda; the two Yamaha riders, Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales, six million each; and Dani Pedrosa, who pocketed four million.

There was an upper-middle class, with Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins (Suzuki), the Espargaro brothers (Aprilia for Aleix and KTM for Pol) and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) earning between one and three million euros, while a total of twelve riders were paid under 500,000 euros. Karel Abraham (Angel Nieto Aspar) closed the list with a salary of 80,000 euros.

In 2022 the highest paid rider on the grid will be Marc Marquez, with a fifteen million euro tab (not counting prize money for victories or titles), followed by the last two MotoGP world champions, Joan Mir (6.5 million) and Fabio Quartararo, who in his second year with Yamaha will be paid four million, as he looks to make the big leap when he renews. Suzuki's Alex Rins joins the list of the richest, with another four million.

Quartararo, who joined the factory Yamaha team last year with a 2.5 million euro salary, will this year reach four million euros. Even after celebrating the title with the Frenchman, Yamaha will save around five million euros this year

The middle class remains the same, but while in 2018 there were salaries of three million (Iannone) and some comfortably above two million, in 2022 there are nine riders on between one and two million, while the rest, eleven riders, will be under six figures.

Honda's roster is the highest. Marc Marquez's renewal for the 2021-2024 period, announced on 20 February 2020 before the pandemic broke out and the series of injuries that has kept him out of action for almost a full year, left the Japanese manufacturer unable to manoeuvre.

Despite this, the multi-champion, who in 2020 was only able to ride at the first stop on the calendar (Jerez), where his ordeal began, was generous with the company and agreed to receive "whatever Honda wanted to pay me," he admitted to Autosport a few months ago. In parallel to the investment with its spearhead and main attraction, HRC is paying just over three million euros in the combined salaries of Pol Espargaro, Alex Marquez and Takaaki Nakagami.

Ducati has understood the new times best of all. The Borgo Panigale brand paid almost 17 million euros in salaries to Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso in 2018, plus another three million euros in prize money to the Italian. In total it was 20 million, more than a third of the rain of millions that concentrated the entire grid. Lorenzo was not renewed and Dovizioso did not accept a low offer for 2021. The Italian was offered two and a half million in base salary when in 2020 he had received around six million, a difference he interpreted as an invitation to leave.

Marquez remains the best-paid rider in MotoGP

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

In 2021 Ducati has paid its riders less than three million euros. That includes the base salary of its factory pair of riders, Francesco Bagnaia (world championship runner-up) and Jack Miller; that of Pramac duo Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco, and also Enea Bastianini (Avintia). In 2022 that number will rise slightly to 3.8 million.

The Italian factory has learned that investment must be focused on developing the bike, on trying to make the Desmosedici the best prototype on the grid and therefore the most desirable for riders. This strategy has allowed Ducati to bring together a group of young talents who are more hungry for results than for money. On the eve of the world championship, which starts on 6 March in Qatar, things are looking good. The good feeling that both the GP21 and GP22 transmit to those who ride them is directly proportional to the respect that the two bikes instil to the rivals who suffer them on the track.

Nothing to do with what happened at Suzuki, where the title won in 2020 has boosted the payroll in the Hamamatsu offices. In 2018 between Iannone and Rins, the house of the big S paid five million euros. In 2022, Mir and Rins will add 10.5 between them, all while the GSX-RR has been out-developed by most of its rivals.

Yamaha has hit the jackpot. Maverick Vinales, who had a contract worth almost eight million euros signed for 2022, resigned to go to Aprilia. His side of the garage now belongs to Franco Morbidelli, who will receive less than one and a half million euros.

Quartararo, who joined the factory team last year with a 2.5 million euro salary, will this year reach four million euros. Even after celebrating the title with the Frenchman, Yamaha will save around five million euros this year, and will pay half of what it had to pay last season in base salaries to its riders.

Aprilia and KTM are the two sides of the coin. While the house of Noale treats its riders with kid gloves and salaries of elite sportsmen (it pays four million to be divided between Aleix Espargaro and Vinales), in the Austrian constructor nobody comes close to two million. With 3.6 million, they cover the contracts of their four riders.

Paradoxically, the 'common' salaries, such as the 80,000 euros that Abraham earned four years ago, have disappeared: in 2022, the lowest paid rider will earn 200,000 euros per year.

The pandemic has undoubtedly taken its toll on MotoGP as it has on the world in general and the sport in particular. It has had a direct impact on the management and operating model of the racing business, and has also affected the mentality of many riders, who are now more focused on winning races than making money, aware that the former will lead to the latter.

Morbidelli is a far cheaper option for Yamaha to partner Quartaro than the departed Vinales

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images