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Aprilia MotoGP rider Aleix Espargaro says that there’s a place ready for Maverick Vinales alongside him, after Vinales dramatically announced at the last round that he will part ways with the factory Yamaha squad at the end of the current season, only halfway through his current contract with the team.
The news of his switch to Aprilia was expected to be announced in the days following the last round at Assen, where Vinales first denied that he was considering splitting from Yamaha only for the news to be made official less than 24 hours later.
It’s believed by The Race’s sources in the MotoGP paddock that the delay is due to an ironing out of the final contractual hang-ups with Vinales’ Yamaha deal and that he is still very much on track to join Aprilia for next season – news that Espargaro says will reinvigorate his career.
“I would love to have him onboard,” said Espargaro. “You cannot imagine how much the Aprilia project has improved in the past two or three years. Sincerely, I remember coming here from Suzuki and thinking ‘woah, I have a lot of work in front of me.’ But now this factory is unbelievable.
“They’re working very hard, the organisation is very high, and the potential of the bike is to be a top bike. We’re already on the top level and it’s still growing. The good thing isn’t even how good we are now, it’s how shiny the future is.
“To have a rider like Maverick would be the next step, and I think for him this project would suit him. I know him very well, and I would be very happy if he came here. Aprilia and [team boss] Massimo Rivola deserve to sign a top rider, because I know how hard they are working. I hope they can sign Maverick, because it would be perfect.”
For his part, Vinales opened up today for the first time a little more about his decisions for wanting to escape Yamaha and what has clearly become a toxic working environment for the 26-year-old.
Not looking content at the team for some time, he says that it was an inability to find an explanation for his form that prompted a speedy decision.
“Sometimes it’s very hard for me to have an explanation for things,” he explained, “and in the end, it was this lack of confidence in the team that made me take this decision. I decided to stop for that reason. With our consistency, it took away a lot of my confidence, and we lost our way.
“I need to find something that lets me work well, and lets me find my maximum. In the end, the only thing that I desire and the only thing I want to do is to win races, and right now the way to do it is very far away. This situation is hard for me. It is a difficult time. We need to overcome this, and I’ll be much stronger when I get past it.”
Despite some rumours to the contrary, it seems that that new path will come via Aprilia, as he is increasingly left without other options on the 2022 grid.
Only five seats now remain officially unfilled for next year; one Aprilia option, his own at Yamaha (which is expected to be taken by Franco Morbidelli), the second spot at VR46 Ducati, and the two Petronas Yamaha seats being vacated by Morbidelli and the retiring Valentino Rossi.
With both Petronas Yamaha options impossible for Vinales given his departure from the manufacturer, there has been some speculation linking him to a potential move to Rossi’s own Ducati-backed team, especially with fresh rumours this weekend suggesting that Rossi protege Marco Bezzecchi might replace him at Petronas.
However, according to The Race’s sources in the paddock, Bezzecchi is a cert to take the second seat at VR46 Ducati alongside Luca Marini, with the Malaysian-based Yamaha team believed to have offered a financial package that is considerably below the market rate for even a MotoGP rookie.
With money also believed to have also been a factor in the World Superbike duo of Toprak Razgatlıoğlu and Garrett Gerloff both rejecting the chance to ride for the team, it means that they are still in the search for riders to join what was once considered among the hottest seats in MotoGP.
