Over the past two years, Suzuki rider Alex Rins has absolutely looked fast enough to challenge for the MotoGP world title.
Yet while that’s something that team-mate Joan Mir was able to accomplish in 2020, it’s telling that Rins has actually won more races for the brand; testament not only to his speed but to his career-defining inconsistency to date.
But as he’s looking like a new man for 2022, is it finally the time for him to put together a full title-contending season?
Three races into the year and so far it’s certainly looking good for the 26-year-old. A top-seven finisher in every race and improving incrementally from seventh to fifth and then to third last time out in Argentina, the reckless Rins of the past so far looks to have been left behind – at least for now.
Last year’s horrific run of form in the opening European races very much established a reputation that has stuck with Rins since.
He failed to score four times in four races before missing another race after cycling into the back of a parked van on track, though to his credit he did turn that around after the summer break, only failing to finish two of the remaining 11 rounds.
However, there’s no getting away from the big black mark caused by that early-season run of bad form.
So what has brought about the dramatic transformation in Rins’ performance after such a rickety start to last year? Well, it’s hard to pin it on one specific factor in particular – but two jump right out: a better Suzuki GSX-RR for this season, and a racer who is now a little bit older, wiser and perhaps more able to deal with the pressures of racing, with fatherhood helping him clarify his priorities and his actions.
“It’s super stressful,” he admitted when asked if MotoGP has become more high-pressure than ever, “but it’s what we like. It’s what we love. The level now is so high, and it’s increasing race by race, the level of MotoGP, of the bikes. We are in a really high level now.
“I haven’t stopped to think about it, but maybe looking at the results I am taking better the pressure and the hard moments. Maybe I’m more relaxed because I have time to breathe now on the straight! I have more confidence with the bike, with the team, more experience.
“And maybe yes, Lucas [Rins’ baby son] has something to do with it, because his arrival has given me more power, more focus.”
However, before Rins’ newfound consistency can be completely judged a success, there’s one more test that he must overcome before he’ll fully show that he’s capable of putting together a title challenge: he needs to prove that he can win when someone else is breathing down his neck.
Perhaps the most standard-issue Rins fall of the previous two or three seasons has come in exactly the same situation, with him cracking under the pressure of having a rival on his tail – or right ahead of him. More than once, we’ve seen Rins make an excellent overtake only to immediately then fall off, as he gets caught up in the moment.
That’s something that he says has been eased by the extra capabilities of Suzuki’s newly-improved bike and it’s something he demonstrated wasn’t in effect last time out at Termas de Rio Hondo where he successfully resisted the late-race advances of team-mate Joan Mir – and this weekend at the Circuit of the Americas could give him another chance to highlight his improvements.
Rins goes into this weekend perhaps not quite the clear favourite but as the only racer in history to win at COTA in the premier class apart from Marc Marquez, and with Marquez only just returning from injury, he knows he has as good a chance as anyone of winning.
“Is Marc the favourite?” mused Rins. “In my opinion, yes. Four months ago, during the practices, he wasn’t showing all his potential if you compare it to the race. The way he did the race was to pull something out of his hat. The pace he demonstrated was something no one else had during all the weekend.
“I would like to be [the next favourite]. It’s difficult, because Jack [Miller] rode so fast last year, but he didn’t make a good race because of the medium choice of the tyre. I don’t know. I can’t say one favourite, if it’s not Marc.
“But I would like to repeat. It won’t be easy, first of all because of Marc, and I am so happy he is here. It will be difficult because of him and because of the level of MotoGP, because when you see the last races it is unpredictable who can win, who can be at the front.
“Let’s keep going with the same mentality in the box, on the track and see what happens – because right now it’s a good way to get results, score points.”
