Isaac Viñales · Biography

In December 2013 Team Calvo announced it had signed Isaac Viñales for the 2014 Moto3 season, and that move to a new team and bike gave him his best Grand Prix results. Isaac Viñales Mares was born on 6 November 1993 in Llançà, in the province of Girona, Spain, and is the cousin of Maverick Viñales. He raced in 125cc, Moto3 and Moto2, then in the Supersport and Superbike World Championships, and later in endurance racing.

Early years

He joined the Red Bull MotoGP Academy in 2006. An injury ruled him out of 2007, but in 2008 he won the Pre-GP 125cc Evo championship. Over the next two seasons he finished fourth and sixth in the Spanish 125cc Championship. In 2010 he started five races in the 125cc World Championship. He first rode a Lambretta until a crash at Indianapolis broke his radius and ulna. He then rode a Catalunya Racing Team Aprilia at Valencia and finished 13th. He ended the year 25th with 3 points. In 2011 he raced in the Spanish Moto2 championship, won at Valencia and finished fifth.

Moto3 with FTR Honda (2012-2013)

He moved to Moto3 in 2012 with the Ongetta-Centro Seta team on an FTR Honda. In his first season he scored 8 points from 15 races and finished 28th. He stayed with the team in 2013 and climbed to 17th, with 47 points from 17 races.

Team Calvo and first podiums (2014)

The Team Calvo KTM took him up a level. On 18 May 2014 he finished third at Le Mans for his first world championship podium, which was also the team’s first of the year. On 1 June at Mugello he was second in one of the closest finishes in Grand Prix history. He and Álex Rins crossed the line with the same time behind winner Romano Fenati, and Viñales got second place because his fastest lap was quicker. At the season finale in Valencia he was second again, 0.155 seconds behind Jack Miller. He finished seventh in the championship with 141 points, his best Grand Prix result.

Husqvarna and KTM (2015)

He began 2015 on the Laglisse team’s Husqvarna. On 19 April at Termas de Río Hondo he led the race early on and finished third in the Argentine Grand Prix, behind Danny Kent and Efrén Vázquez. Partway through the season he moved to a KTM with the RBA Racing Team. He set the fastest lap in Japan and finished ninth with 115 points.

Three seasons in Moto2 (2016-2018)

He moved up to Moto2 with Tech 3 Racing in 2016 and finished 24th with 19 points. In 2017 he rode a Kalex for the BE-A-VIP SAG Team and finished 22nd with 18 points. He started 2018 with the SAG Team and in August joined the Forward Racing Team, which ran a Suter. He ended the year 26th with 7 points. In total he started 123 Grands Prix across 125cc, Moto3 and Moto2, with 4 podiums and 358 points.

Supersport and Superbike (2019-2023)

In 2019 he switched to the Supersport World Championship on Kallio Racing’s Yamaha YZF-R6. He did not finish his first race at Phillip Island, but in the second half of the year he took three podiums in a row: second at Magny-Cours, another podium in Argentina and third in Qatar, in the final race. He finished seventh with 97 points. He stayed with the team in 2020, made the podium at Portimão and Aragón, and finished eighth with 116 points. In 2021 he moved up to the Superbike World Championship on the Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki ZX-10RR and finished 17th with 45 points. In 2022 he raced a Ducati in Supersport and a Kawasaki in some Superbike rounds. He returned to Superbike with Kawasaki in 2023 and finished 26th.

Endurance racing

He then turned to endurance racing. At the 2025 Suzuka 8 Hours he rode a Tati Team AVA6 Racing Honda CBR1000RR with Hugo Clere and Sho Nishimura, and the team retired. In the 2025 Endurance World Championship, riding a Maxxess by BMRT 3D Kawasaki ZX-10R, he finished tenth with 40 points.