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Maverick Vinales’ extraordinary attack on his MotoGP employer Yamaha after the German Grand Prix came in the aftermath of a race in which he’d finished last and intimated he dropped back there deliberately.
But it was also in the context of a relationship that has never delivered what it promised since he arrived at the team as Jorge Lorenzo’s replacement for 2017.
And with new team-mate Fabio Quartararo edging away in the championship lead, the timing of Vinales’ struggle and outburst is not ideal.
Is this relationship effectively over? Here’s what our writers think:
This is Zarco at KTM v2
Simon Patterson
It’s almost impossible to believe I’m even considering this, but is Maverick Vinales actually trying to get himself sacked from the factory Yamaha team? He’s said some pretty harsh things about it in the past – and even elicited a famous public apology a few years back from the Japanese engineering team.
But the difference then was that both he and then-team-mate Valentino Rossi were struggling with the bike. Now that it’s just him in that state, and as new team-mate Quartararo continues to extend his championship lead, it’s harder to understand what else Vinales hopes to achieve by publicly lambasting the squad.
His admission that he dropped back in Sunday’s race on purpose, his refusal to use Quartararo’s settings or adjust his riding style, all hark back to the worst days of Zarco’s time with KTM – and we all know how that ended.
It has to make you wonder – has Yamaha thought about checking to see just how full test rider Cal Crutchlow’s schedule is for the second half of the year, just in case?
IT’S OVER, TIME FOR A RIDER SWAP
Matt Beer
In both performance and team relationship terms, I can’t see any way back for Vinales and Yamaha from here.
The trajectory has been too bad for too long, and recent events have aggressively stoked the fire rather than putting it out.
Quartararo is clearly something special and in tune with what the 2021-spec Yamaha needs, so for Vinales to be slower than him would not be too problematic. The scale of the gap and the mayhem around Vinales could easily be a distraction when the team’s got a title to win, though.
MotoGP’s long contracts add another headache, but if there was enough of a will to engineer a way (as there was in the mid-2019 Johann Zarco/KTM split) then I’d be looking to solve two problems at once by parachuting the currently under-utilised Franco Morbidelli onto Vinales’ bike as soon as possible.
Exactly what would happen at Petronas SRT in the wake of that move is a fairly fundamental detail to resolve, but a promotion for Morbidelli would mean Yamaha’s second-best rider is no longer getting frustrated with its fourth-best bike.
The evidence from their time as Petronas team-mates is that while Quartararo’s level is ultimately higher than Morbidelli’s, Morbidelli is barely any slower and can thrive in situations where Quartararo doesn’t. His runner-up finish in last year’s world championship is ample evidence.
There’s still a good signing here – for someone else
David Gruz
At this point it’s hard to see beyond this being a mentality issue for Vinales.
He is clearly as good as anyone on a good day, but when he has to take even the slightest amount of extra risk to make his way forward, or when there is any kind of issue, he really just seems unable to cope with it.
It’s hard to imagine Vinales doing better on any other bike, all of which are still probably harder to ride than the Yamaha, but despite his shortcomings – so clearly on display right now – he’d still be an exciting fit for some rival manufacturers.
At Aprilia he’d probably become the Italian brand’s first podium finisher or even race winner in a very long time. And there’s some sense in a Suzuki reunion – that team might want him as someone who could get more out of the bike over one lap, given it’s hard to be certain how much of the GSX-RR’s current qualifying woes are down to the bike itself as opposed to the two riders, who are both excellent Sunday chargers but both not known for being time attack stars.
It’s time to roll the dice
Valentin Khorounzhiy
There’s a admitted risk here of egg on my face, of a screengrab being featured in one of those Twitter accounts chronicling sports opinions that aged poorly – @OldTakesExposed, or something like that – in 2031 when Vinales retires a four-time MotoGP champion and Yamaha legend. He is, after all, only 26.
And yet… fool me once, shame on you. Fool me in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and now 2021, and there cannot be any faith left in the reserves.
Vinales will return to respectability on the Yamaha if given the time. He will win races again if given the time. But he will not be the rider he should be, or the rider Yamaha deserves to have. And because of that it’s better, mentally for Vinales and maybe financially, for Yamaha, to cut the losses of everyone involved.
Of course, an early contract termination means there’s no room at the inn at the obvious alternatives – KTM, Suzuki, Ducati, Honda. And for the first three it’s hard to imagine that changing for even 2023, while Honda could well be a longer-term target.
But as for 2022, an Aprilia dalliance really would make more sense than it seems at first glance. Yes, it’s not a championship-calibre bike and expectations would have to be adjusted, but Vinales could thrive again with a smaller project, under less pressure. Being reunited with former Suzuki team-mate Aleix Espargaro would probably also come as a boon.
A long shot? Massively so. But it would be so much more narratively satisfying than an extra 12-month whimper to conclude his likely doomed Yamaha stint, or a sabbatical Vinales probably can’t afford given the battering his stock will have taken as of late.
