Being on track is only a small part of the show.

MotoGP is a circus of 19 races over 4 continents, where sport and glamour go hand in hand with high tech garages and multi-storey hospitality suites. It takes huge investment to build up a team from zero in terms of facilities and equipment. Once this is done, to run a MotoGP satellite team costs around 10 million euros per season without considering the riders’ salary.

The Bikes

Half of the budget is represented by the bikes: the lease fee of around 2.2 million per rider includes engine maintenance and development, plus crashed parts.

Logistics

The other half is represented by the salary of 40 team members, the logistics of the people, flights, hotels, equipment, seven trucks for European races, and tons of material to ship by plane for overseas races.

Riders

The salaries can vary from zero to millions. There are three to four MotoGP riders who earn more than the budget for a whole season of a satellite team.

Hospitality

The budget to build up a new hospitality is around €2 million with €600-700,000 per season to cover the running costs. An average of 1,000 meals are served on the most-attended race weekends like the Spanish and Italian rounds. In one season, the hospitality units serve 900 kilos of pasta, 20,000 bottles of water and 18,000 soft drinks.

Contributions

The contribution that arrives from Dorna and IRTA to a MotoGP team currently covers 30 per cent of the budget. Starting from 2017, the contribution that Dorna gives to the teams is much more structured with Dorna covering almost the whole cost of leasing the bikes, which have a capped price of around €2-2.2 million per two bikes for a rider. In addition IRTA will continue to cover a big part of the equipment transportation.