After sixteen races of the 2021 MotoGP season, bagging ten podium finishes and five race wins, 22-year-old Fabio Quartararo was crowned as the 2021 MotoGP World Champion at the iconic Misano World Circuit. You might know all about Quartararo’s racing accolades but here are five things about the world champion that you didn’t know about.
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Just at the age of 4, Fabio’s father Etienne Quartararo introduced him to the world of motorcycle racing. El Diablo spent most of his early training life in Nice, his birth city. Even though Nice was not famous for moto racing, Fabio got hands-on experience on different spec bikes and also got to train with some professionals early on. His father was not a professional rider but his decision to introduce his son to the Moto world paid off when Fabio made his MotoGP debut with Yamaha’s satellite team in 2019.
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Fabio’s family shifted to Spain before he could turn eight to a place which is a hub of motorcycle racing – Spain. There, he started competing in different races with different bikes. Fabio’s first-ever win was the 2008 Series 50cc class and he followed that up with 2009’s 70cc class, 2011’s 80cc class and his last one as a junior rider was in the Spanish domestic championship which is the Mediterranean pre-Moto3 class.
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Currently, the Yamaha rider earns a salary of $2.5 million with a weekly wage of $132,500. His current contract lasts till the 2022 season and he is very likely to get a pay raise after he was crowned MotoGP World Champion. The 22-year-old has a net worth of $5 Million dollars which includes major sponsorship deals such as Monster Energy drink, which adds $500,000 every season. Just like all other famous sportspeople, Quartararo also has his own merchandise which adds to his personal wealth as well.
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In his career as a MotoGP rider, Fabio Quartararo has donated a lot of his income to charity. Apart from donating money, he has also put his racing items on auction so that he could give the money to charity. Once, he put his visor tear-off at an auction in the UK which was sold for $5,856 and all that money was donated to a UK-based charity.
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On 24th October 2021, Fabio Quartararo created history as he became the first French rider in history to pick up the MotoGP World Championship. The 22-year-old’s only title challenger was Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia who led the entire race at the Misano World Circuit before crashing out with three laps to go, which handed Quartararo the crown. His victory also ended a decade of Spanish dominance after Marc Marquez(6), Jorge Lorenzo(2) and Joan Mir(1), who won nine titles in total…and we’d like to think, this may not be his last!
[Image Credit: Fabio Quartararo]
Shashank Iyer