Now Marc Marquez has eclipsed Angel Nieto’s record as the Spaniard with the most grand prix wins it’s time to relive his career… in his own words
Angel Nieto Roldan won 13 world championships, involving 90 grand prix wins and 139 podiums in the 50cc, 80cc and 125cc classes over almost two decades until 1986. A quad-bike accident on a street in Ibiza in 2017 robbed the sport of an icon that inspired many. Here is his story, mostly told in his own words, shortly before his untimely death.
“My earliest memory? Motorcycles. Not places, not people, just a deep curiosity for motorcycles. They smoked, they made big sounds, they seemed to fly. As a kid, it was all I wanted.
“My parents sold eggs for a living and we didn’t even have running water at home. We were very, very poor and often had nothing to eat. I had no interest in school, so I left home when I was 14. All I wanted to do was go to the heart of our Spanish motorcycle industry.
“I was 15 when I started working for Mototrans Ducati. At the time they only built 125cc racers. No big deal you might think, but in Spain you had to be 18 or older to race the 125s, so I had to wait.
“When I turned 16, I decided to try my luck with Derbi. They built 50cc racers you could race at that age. I was really lucky. Derbi hired me as a race mechanic and promised me that I could have a spin on a works racer every now and then.
“Their 50cc racers were very, very tiny and I thought it would be good to get used to their cramped riding position. So I sat on one between six and eight in the morning and asked somebody to rope-tie my hands and feet to the bike. In the beginning it was extremely painful. The first time I did it I barely could walk the pain was so excruciating. But after a few months I could fold myself up perfectly behind the minimal fairing.
“Most decisive point in my career? Montjuic 1964, without any doubt. I was young and eager and the Derbi works bikes to me were everything, I just didn’t think there were any better. But I could not believe what I saw at Montjuic. The Japanese… I could not believe all the equipment, bikes, vans and mechanics with white gloves. But the Spanish loved Derbi, that was clear to me when I did my very first lap. The crowd roared and it gave me shivers. I cannot remember much of the race. Full focus, shifting, listening to the engine, praying it wouldn’t seize, working hard to stay in the ultra-narrow 50cc powerband, riding tight lines so people couldn’t pass me. All of a sudden there was a guy waving the chequered flag and people running to me. A big guy picked me off the bike and threw me in the air, shouting my name and Derbi’s. When he put me down everybody started patting me, kissing me, some were even crying with happiness. I asked what had happened. They told me I had finished fifth. I didn’t know, I hadn’t taken any notice of the pit signals because I thought only the top riders would get that service.
“It was magic. I became one with my machine for the first time. That realisation is by far my happiest moment in life. I felt my heart connected with the loud pitch of the screaming engine, both bringing me to a better place. No cold cellar, no scares, no hunger, no missing my parents. All it took was 50cc of Derbi and somebody to have some faith in me. Because of that fifth place I earned two world championship points and finished 10th in the 50cc title that year. But at the end of the day, at Derbi, I was a mechanic, not a race rider.
“Success comes with a price, I learned shortly after. Derbi entered me for the French GP at Clermont-Ferrand. I was unprepared, I just wanted to ride and catch that spirit again. I couldn’t. I raced without full focus and crashed hard! Derbi was upset. When I was recovering in hospital, they told me I wasn’t allowed to go to the races at Daytona in the US as promised for 1965. I realised that for Derbi I was first a mechanic and second a rider.”
BECOMING A WORKS RIDER
“I was by then old and big enough to ride the 125s, so I approached Mototrans Ducati. I just wanted to race, pay or no pay, I didn’t care. At the time the workers at the Spanish factories kept riders like me alive by sharing what they had left in their lunchboxes and at payday went around the workers to collect some money for us.
“Ducati knew what I had achieved at Montjuic and I got handed a contract to become a 125cc works racer. I couldn’t believe it. I felt a free man. That evening I bought my first new pair of shoes and ate in a restaurant.
“Ducati was very professional but didn’t mind me riding for other brands in the other categories. In the 50cc class I still raced with Derbi. In 1965, I finished the German 50cc GP at the Nurburgring in fifth place; a year later at the Montjuic GP, I again finished fifth with the small Derbi.”
“The Japanese now were also fierce competitors in the shops. Mototrans was forced to cut costs and close its race department. I asked Derbi if they were interested in hiring me solely as a rider, not a mechanic. Thankfully, they agreed! So I remained with Derbi and closed off the season with the Spanish 50cc and 125cc national road race titles. But I also finished second in the 50cc Dutch GP, the TT at Assen.
“A lot was going on at that time. It was clear that 1968 was going to be a vital year as it was the last season of the multis in the small classes but all I could do was finish the season in fourth place. In 1969 the regulation changes were put into place. Honda and Suzuki stopped GP racing and Yamaha followed a year later. I thought it would become easier but I was wrong. Kreidler had gotten very strong and Dutchman Aalt Toersen was pretty much unbeatable. I fought a long and hard season with him on my Derbi. I won my first GP that year at the Sachsenring in East Germany, and soon after that I won the Ulster GP. In Spain, France and Yugoslavia I finished second and in Czechoslovakia third to became world 50cc champion! Quite a miracle, let me tell you. I scored 76 points, one more than Toersen.”
In 1970 Nieto dominated the 50cc world championship on his Derbi. He also finished second on his Derbi 125cc two-stroke twin, behind Dieter Braun on a Suzuki.
“I liked the 125cc class but preferred the 50s. I liked the close racing and the expertise you need riding a small bike like that on its absolute limit. Nevertheless, Derbi had developed a very fast twin and I benefited from that as in 1971, I became 125cc world champion. I beat Barry Sheene on his Suzuki. In the 50cc class I encountered another Dutchman, Jan de Vries on his Kreidler works racer. With him I fought out my most fierce GP battles ever. We tried everything to gain an advantage. I rode with boots two sizes too small and very tight racing leathers to gain aerodynamic advantage. I did not drink or eat for four hours before a race. But, ultimately, he beat me to the 50cc title that year.”
Their historic rivalry continued in a long, close racing season in 1972. After the last race of the season, both Angel Nieto and Jan de Vries were tied on 69 points.
“So, they counted up the combined race times of all races that season. My total was 21.5 seconds quicker than Jan’s, so I was the world champion that year. I was very happy because I also won the 125cc world championship that year with Derbi!”
TOUGH AT THE TOP
Unfortunately, Derbi was forced to stop racing. The small Spanish factory could no longer carry the high costs involved, in a domestic market now dominated by the Japanese motorcycle industry.
“The day after I won the 125cc title, the boss at Derbi told me he had decided to close the race team the same day. I asked him if I could use his telephone. He agreed and the operator put me through to the Morbidelli factory and got Gianfranco Morbidelli on the line. Three minutes later I walked out of Derbi with an offer for a 125cc contract at Morbidelli. But the competition was very fierce. I finished second in a few races but could do no better than seventh in 1973. In Spain I had kept active in the 50cc class with a few older Derbi works racers. I asked Derbi to reconsider their involvement in GP racing and asked if they could revamp their 125s. Ultimately they did and in 1974 I was back with Derbi but the bikes weren’t competitive any more. It was a miracle I finished the season in third place.”
In 1975 Nieto returned to 50cc racing in Kreidler’s works team, run by Dutchman Frits van Veen. He won six of the eight GPs that year. In the other two he finished second, claiming yet another 50cc world title. In 1976 he rode mainly in the 50cc class for Bultaco.
“Bultaco worked endlessly to better these bikes and they understood the riders’ feedback very well. Especially (Dutch two-stroke engineer) Jan Thiel, who would become instrumental in my success. Every time I rode for a factory where he worked, he was able to build and prepare the right bikes at the right time, year after year, circuit after circuit. In 1976 I won the 50cc world title with Bultaco and in the 125s I finished second on the Bultaco twin behind Pier Paolo Bianchi (Morbidelli).”
“The battle in the 50s with Kreidler and in the 125s with Morbidelli was really fierce, so I sat down with Bultaco to see if they were willing to hire another rider. They agreed and they signed Ricardo Tormo after I had recommended him. It worked. In 1977 I won the 50cc world title but in the 125s the best I could do was finish third.”
With the exception of Nieto’s Bultaco and Gert Bender’s private Bender, the 1977 125cc top ten all were Morbidellis.
“Season 1978 would be frustrating. I decided to focus on the 125s, so Bultaco gave Ricardo full support in the 50cc class. That helped him become 50cc world champion but in the 125s it was a different story. The Bultacos already found it difficult against the Morbidellis, but now also MBA and Minarelli had caught up and my Bultaco got more and more outclassed. So I left for Minarelli but Pier Paolo Bianchi remained the team’s No.1 rider.”
That changed after Bianchi crashed heavily. Nieto took over and won the 125cc GP races in Finland, the UK, Germany and Yugoslavia.
“I finished third in the 125cc championship that year and 11th in the 50cc class. The only 50cc GP I rode that year was in Germany, where I finished second on a Bultaco that they had lent me for the race. But in 1979 it would go much better. I won eight of the 13 GPs and that gave me the 125cc world title with Minarelli, but in 1980 it went downhill again. I had decided to only focus on the 125cc world championship. But that year MBA and Motobecane were very strong and all I could do was end the season third.”
THE LAST CHAPTER OF RACING
“I felt that in 1981 my second youth had begun. I did a 250 GP in Germany with a Siroko Rotax and finished fifth. More importantly I signed a contract with Minarelli where Jan Thiel also had ended up. Loris Reggiani became my teammate. Sure enough I earned another 125cc world title which, looking back, was a sign of things to come. I also tried Marco Lucchinelli’s 500cc Honda during the 1982 Spanish GP. Honda was keen to contract me but I didn’t see the sense as I was more a specialist in the lighter classes. But then factory owner Vittorio Minarelli passed away. Thankfully, they were engine suppliers of Garelli, who bought the racing department. Garelli’s approach to racing was phenomenal. For them I won another three world titles, all 125cc, in 1982, 1983 and in 1984… my very last. So, the total was 12+1. I don’t like to count that sum up, as the result brings bad luck.”
In 1984 the 50cc world championship was replaced with the 80cc capacity class. In 1985 Nieto participated in the new championship but missed the first races because of a heavy crash in the last grand prix of 1984. Nevertheless, he won the French Grand Prix and closed the 80cc world championship off in ninth place.
“The 1985 French GP was my last GP victory. The great thing is that I accomplished that win with Derbi. I received a hero’s welcome when I came back home to Spain. My career started with Derbi and ended with Derbi.”
FOOTNOTE
After his retirement, Nieto remained active in the sport and under his guidance and mentorship many Spanish riders made their way to the top: Alex Criville, Sete Giberneau, Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa, Maverick Vinales and Marc Marquez just to name a few. His son Pablo is the team manager of Valentino Rossi’s 2025 MotoGP Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team.
