Maverick Vinales reveals bleak KTM MotoGP salary detail impacting injured riders

Maverick Vinales says there is a clause in his KTM MotoGP contract that means he can only miss three races with injury before his salary starts to get deducted.

The Tech3 rider has been battling injury since the middle of last year, when he badly fractured his shoulder in a crash during German Grand Prix qualifying.

Since then, Vinales has served several spells on the sidelines as he continues to struggle with the aftereffects of that injury.

Vinales missed three rounds early in the season to have surgery, and then was absent for the first four races after the summer break.

“If I stay at home, I don’t get paid”

Vinales returned at the Japanese Grand Prix and finished 14th, but struggled during the Indonesian Grand Prix weekend.

In Australia, the pain in his shoulder was also a problem, but he revealed he had no choice but to keep racing through it if he wanted to be paid.

Speaking to the media, as reported by Motorsport, Vinales says a clause in his KTM contract stipulates that his pay is deducted from the fourth race he misses.

“For me, riding like this makes no sense, because I’m the first one who doesn’t want to be at the back, and because I’m suffering a lot,” he said.

“My shoulder hurts, but if I stay home, I don’t get paid.

“There’s nothing I can do. Obviously, I was injured in Q1 [in Germany last year], racing for KTM, but the contracts you sign are what they are.

“You sign that you can miss three races, and after the fourth, they start deducting money.”

“We have to push to change this”

Riders are limited in what they can say about the details of their contracts, so it’s not clear whether pay is deducted after three races missed in a row, or in total.

If it is an accumulative bracket, Vinales has missed seven grands prix of the 18 rounds started so far in 2026. In 2025, he missed eight grands prix races due to injury.

Vinales currently has nothing in place for 2027, having lost his place on the grid. He has been linked to a Ducati test rider role, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

KTM is not the only manufacturer that operates such clauses in its contracts, but it raises the wider issue - again - of the need for a riders’ union.

In Formula 1, the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association helps its members ensure their contracts are fair.

“We have to push hard to change that, because this is a risky sport,” Vinales said.

“And injuries are common. Now it’s happened to Toprak [Razgatlioglu]. [He had] a silly crash and he’ll miss six races.”

This is issue is further spotlighted by the change to the weekend format for 2027, which adds a sprint qualifying session and further increases the strain placed on riders.

Since the sprint format was introduced in 2023, the average number of riders missing races has gone from one per round to 2.5.

In 2026, only one round has featured the entirety of the full-time grid. That only happened twice last year, while no races in 2023 featured the entire full-time grid.