until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
After six weeks of anticipation, it’s finally official: Maverick Vinales will be an Aprilia MotoGP rider for 2022.
And I don’t know about you, but given the huge advances the Italian firm has made in recent seasons, I cannot wait to see what happens when one of the fastest and most talented riders in the world finally gets a chance to show us what’s possible with the RS-GP.
That’s because unlike many people, I genuinely do believe that the combination of Vinales and Aprilia will be a success – and that the Noale firm, under the steerage of former Ferrari Formula 1 boss Massimo Rivola, would have been absolutely insane to let the chance to sign a current-season race winner slip through its fingers.
Vinales is talented – incredibly talented. You don’t win races the way he dominated the opening round of the 2021 season in Qatar without having talent in spades.
The problem that Vinales has isn’t skill level, it’s finding a way to properly channel that skill, and it’s pretty obvious now that path no longer involves a Yamaha M1 or its factory team.
What the 26-year-old needs is a change in scenery. He needs a European manufacturer, one that will shout at him when he’s being an idiot (something, let’s be honest, he is prone to) but that will also put an arm around his shoulders when he needs it and throw him one hell of a party when he comes home with prizes for it.
Instead, he’s had the corporate world of a Japanese factory team – an environment that suits some riders but not all, including, it seems, Vinales.
Of course, it won’t be as easy as parachuting him into the team and expecting instant results. The events of the past week, with Vinales being suspended from the factory Yamaha team for deliberately trying to blow up his bike during the Styrian Grand Prix, show that clearly there are issues that need to be worked through – and Aprilia does need to consider that in its new signing.
It’s not a reason not to sign him, though, because everyone deserves a second chance in life, especially when you’re one of the rare breed that is an elite athlete.
Many riders are starved of a real education (in academics or the real world), thrust into the (sometimes literal) do-or-die world of professional sport and put under intense pressure from their mid-teens. The Grand Prix paddock isn’t a place designed to make mentally healthy humans.
In fact, it’s testament to a lot of riders that they are such well-rounded individuals – but it does also go a long way to explaining the frequent anger management issues we see as well.
Of course, there’s no example more famous than Romano Fenati – but if there was ever a role model for character reform, it’s got to be how much he’s turned himself around since grabbing Stefano Manzi’s brake lever mid-race at Misano in 2018.
So yes, Vinales too absolutely deserves a second chance – and if Aprilia makes sure it gives him that, by helping him grow not only on the bike but off it with the right support, then it’s getting itself a proper bargain.
Vinales is rumoured to be joining the team on a mere fraction of his Yamaha salary and considerably less than Aprilia was offering other riders like Andrea Dovizioso only 12 months ago.
If it can help turn around his tumultuous current situation, then it’s got itself a real diamond in the rough.
The reality too is that the only way Aprilia is likely to secure the services of such a current MotoGP star is by hiring one who is perhaps seen as damaged goods elsewhere.
It’s well-funded, sure, but it simply does not have the eight-figure sums that rivals like Honda, Yamaha and Ducati have to drop on rider salaries.
It’s an area where Aprilia has to get creative, and poaching Vinales from under Yamaha’s noses is creativity at its finest.
And the potential pay-off could well be huge, too. Aleix Espargaro has inarguably done incredible work developing Aprilia’s bike into a genuine podium contender in the past two years – but with no ill will at all towards him, Espargaro has never been a MotoGP podium regular.
He is of course exceptionally talented and a very strong team-mate to go up against – but it won’t be lost on Aprilia either that in Espargaro’s 18-year MotoGP career, he’s only been beaten in the championship once by the other side of the garage: when he shared the Suzuki box with Vinales in 2016.
For his part, Espargaro isn’t offended by the notion of the team hiring a superstar to ride his bike, either.
Rather, he’s relishing the challenge, and he’s been doing his best in the past few weeks to tempt his fellow Spaniard into putting pen to paper.
And the icing on the cake is that all the disparate parts of this complex jigsaw have come together just at the right time for everyone.
Aprilia is finally returning to full-factory status in 2022 for the first time since 2004 and is doing it with a bike potentially capable of winning.
To be in that position just as Vinales was free and available for a low price was serendipitous – and it might just be a fairytale story waiting to happen.
