MotoGP – Marquez the highest paid rider

Bruno Gomes

July 17, 2018

It’s always interesting to know how much money a MotoGP rider gets every season, and for the best riders we’re talking of enormous amounts of money. Valentino Rossi was, for years, the best paid MotoGP rider, and in recent years it’s been Jorge Lorenzo and his fantastic deal with Ducati who have become the record by which everyone else tries to match up.

But this season Marc Marquez answered back, not only on track, were he is riding comfortably to another MotoGP title having 46 points over Valentino Rossi in the standings, but also on the financial perspective of the sport.

Marquez new contract with Honda for 2019 and 2020 will make him the best paid rider, and even though there’s no official word regarding contract values, reputed Spanish journalist Manuel Pecino shed some light into this subject.

It seems that from next season on, Marc Marquez will earn something around 15 million euros, around RM70.650.791, becoming, without a doubt, the best paid MotoGP rider.

For example, Jorge Lorenzo, who will be Marquez teammate at Honda next season, is reported to have accepted a salary of “just” 4 million euros (RM18.834.910).

But, is Marc Marquez the rider who earns the most in MotoGP?

If you answered yes to this question, then you are right!

It seems that Valentino Rossi is still the champion in this subject, with the veteran Italian rider of Yamaha not getting the best salary, but instead making a great deal with Yamaha in regards of sponsorship percentages.

When Rossi left Ducati and returned to Yamaha in 2013, Yamaha management didn’t want to create a problem with Jorge Lorenzo, who by then was the number 1 rider in the Japanese team. Rossi accepted a contract with lower salary value than Lorenzo, but on that deal he made sure to get something better: sponsorship percentages. Rossi renewed the contract with Yamaha for two more years, with a reported salary of 7 to 8 million euros (RM37.661.303).

Rossi gets a percentage of the deals Yamaha has with many sponsors, including Monster Energy, for example, which is also a personal sponsor of Rossi. It’s impossible to know how much Valentino Rossi earns per year, but it’s for sure the MotoGP rider who earns more money every season. As proof of that, Rossi is still the only MotoGP rider who got into the famous Forbes list of best paid athletes. It was in 2013, with a reported 17.8 million euros (RM83.836.702), a value that might be a bit lower now, but not by much.