Pol Espargaro says MotoGP riders have started taking pay cuts after what they’ve seen at Ducati

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Marc Marquez is believed to be earning £10m per year at Ducati. That makes him the joint-best paid rider on the MotoGP grid.

Only Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo earns as much as Marquez, but the world champion is surely in line for a pay rise after crushing the field during the 2025 season.

Money certainly wasn’t his primary motivation when he joined the Ducati stable, though. In fact, Marquez claims he rode for free at Gresini in 2024.

And even when he moved to the factory team, Marquez told Luigi Dall’Igna he could determine his wage.

He’d left the wealthiest and most prestigious manufacturer on the grid in exchange for a winning bike. It’s said that Honda offered Marquez an £84m long-term deal, but he refused.

Pol Espargaro claims Ducati have changed the ‘market price’ in MotoGP

Speaking on the Hospitality Motociclismo podcast last month, KTM test rider Pol Espargaro explained how Ducati’s rise had changed the MotoGP rider market.

They don’t have the resources to compete with Honda or Yamaha, but they’ve had the best machinery for years. Riders like Marquez are taking pay cuts to join a team where anyone ‘can do well’.

Ducati have unintentionally lowered the market rate. All four of the brand’s satellite riders earn less than £1m, having sacrificed a larger cheque elsewhere on the grid.

“In recent years, the mentality has developed that any rider can do well on a Ducati, that it’s a bike ‘for everyone’,” Espargaro said. “It really works so well that it has lowered the salaries of the entire MotoGP grid because all the riders want that bike.

“Ducati sets the market price. All the riders want to compete with that bike; they know it’s fast with any riding style and in any condition.”

Fabio Quartararo now faces the Marc Marquez dilemma

In theory, it’s good news for Ducati’s rivals that salaries are falling across the board. But some of them are having to hike up their offers to stave off the allure of the Desmosedici motorcycle.

For instance, Yamaha have offered Quartararo a ‘colossal’ sum to stay beyond 2026. The Frenchman’s confidence in Paolo Pavesio’s team has been sapped during a four-year victory drought.

Quartararo is one of Ducati’s top targets for 2027, but he may have to follow Marquez in reducing his earnings to make a move happen.

Neil Hodgson says Quartararo would be ‘crazy’ to stay at Yamaha for the money, with the current M1 wasting his talents. The Iwata outfit will try to convince him that the switch to a V4 engine opens up a path back to the front.