It’s been a dynamic year for Maverick Vinales. In the realms of rollercoasters of emotions, going from winning the opening grand prix of the season and announcing the birth of your first child to taking the chequered flag outside the points for the first time in your career and losing your seat in a factory squad for your actions on circuit is about as wild as you can get. I cannot even begin to imagine how tough this has all been on Maverick, juggling duties as a new father with struggling to hang onto any of his professional relationships, all while the journalists and fans sat on the sideline questioning if this is the end of his career within MotoGP.
The good news for Vinales is that his future is locked in. Earlier this week it was announced that the Spaniard will ride for the Aprilia factory team in 2022, locking in the final seat that was realistically available to him within next season’s line-up. Given the fallout of his actions in the Styrian grand prix, it may have looked for a while like he would never ride a MotoGP bike again, especially now that Yamaha have officially dropped him for the rest of the season. This at least confirms that his future remains within the sport, and though he has had a pretty spectacular record with the factory team – a partnership that yielded eight wins and twenty-four podiums – perhaps it is simply time that he moves on to the next chapter of his life in the sport, just as he moves on to the next chapter of his life with his newly born daughter.
The better news is that this decision has proven success behind it. Had Vinales and Yamaha made the decision to shake hands and walk away mid-season a few years ago, it would have sparked controversy up and down the paddock. It would have been unheard of, and likely ridiculed as career suicide on the part of Maverick. How could a rider possibly have faith in the continuation of their career after stepping away from a factory contract in the middle of the season? How could any team justify bringing that rider onboard when they clearly have a track record of not getting along with team management?
To answer that, let’s rewind the clock to 2019, and focus in on Johann Zarco.
After stepping up to the premier class in 2017 with the then satellite Yamaha team, Tech3, Zarco found immediate success and became a regular feature on the podium and towards the pointy end of the championship standings. He was quick, arguably quicker than the factory riders at the time, and was clearly keen to step up to a factory position to begin fighting for a world title sooner rather than later, but Yamaha simply seemed uninterested in the move. After much speculation, the Frenchman was announced to be moving over to the Factory KTM team for 2019. This was KTM’s first attempt to bring an existing talent from outside of their internal programs on board, and it certainly looked promising – both Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro had been working tirelessly to give KTM a competitive bike, and in the hands of a challenger like Zarco it could only possibly end in success.
Except it didn’t. Zarco struggled on board the KTM bike from the get-go, and his results suffered immediately. He went from being a podium contender most weekends to struggling to score points, and even taking KTM’s first front row start in wet conditions in Brno failed to help the situation. Around the middle of the season, Zarco announced he would be cutting the two-season contract in half and departing from the team at the conclusion of 2019, and only a few rounds later KTM deposed of the Frenchman entirely. It was a bitter, unfortunate set of circumstances, and it looked set to spell the end of Zarco’s career.
It was a tough moment, but you could certainly understand Zarco’s choice. To describe him as unhappy while riding with KTM would be an understatement – the man looked tired, dejected, as though the effort he was putting in to try and resurrect his results was draining him from head to toe. The mental health of MotoGP riders is something that often gets pushed to one side as punters hone in on the drama and elation of the sport, but Zarco was clearly fighting himself just to go out on the RC16 every weekend. Regardless of what happened from there on out, I personally hoped that he would at least be happier having shed the difficulties he faced within that period of his career.
His salvation ended up coming in two forms. Firstly, he was gifted a second chance at the 2019 season in the form of a replacement ride for the injured Takaaki Nakagami. While the Japanese rider was sidelined for the final three rounds of the season, Honda chose to bring in Zarco as a showing of faith, and the Frenchman jumped at the opportunity to prove himself to any potential employers for 2020. While his results weren’t exactly incredible – a thirteenth and two DNFs were all he managed – he was visibly happier, and was contesting a top eight position before one of the DNFs that occurred. By sheer luck he had landed one more chance to enjoy himself on a MotoGP machine, and like any rider would he grabbed it with both hands.
The second thing that saved his career was an interest taken by Ducati. Despite having their lineup for 2020 already sorted by this point, the Italian manufacturer clearly saw Zarco’s potential despite the controversy, and elected to terminate the contract of then-Avintia rider Karel Abraham in order to bring the Frenchman onboard for 2020. It was a move that brought even more controversy – Abraham essentially lost his place in MotoGP thanks to Ducati signing the contract with Zarco themselves, and putting him under the employment of Avintia – but it was the final piece in the puzzle for Zarco’s incredible return to MotoGP. All he had to do now was perform better on a Ducati than he had on a KTM.
And perform he did. It took just three races for Zarco to bag his first pole position for Ducati, and he converted it to his first podium a day later. Suddenly the two-time Moto2 champion was back in the mix, regularly finishing inside the top ten and battling with the best riders in the world where he belonged. The enjoyment of the sport had returned, and Zarco clearly felt more comfortable within the Ducati team than he ever did within KTM. It was no surprise when it was announced he would move up to the Pramac team for 2021, and the rest is history (side note: I know ‘up’ doesn’t really make sense here since both teams are satellite squads, but given the relationship between Ducati and Pramac and their access to factory machinery, a step from any other satellite squad to Pramac must feel like an upgrade to the rider, at least).
Which brings us to 2021, and to the curious case of Maverick Vinales. While some critics and spectators are going to claim that the conclusion of his time with the factory Yamaha squad and signing with Aprilia will spark the beginning of the end for Vinales, it really would seem like the best possible move for him. Vinales was unhappy within Yamaha, just as Zarco was within KTM, and a change of scenery can only do good for his mental health. Let’s not forget that Yamaha were the team that insisted on prioritising Valentino Rossi’s needs even when Vinales was destroying him in the race results and championship standings – the relationship may have been fine for a while, but an argument can certainly be made that it was never particularly good to begin with.
Another important point to consider is the astronomical boost that Aprilia has seen in the last twelve months. After abandoning their 2020 bike as something too broken to fix, and starting their 2021 design from scratch, they’ve hit one of the richest veins of form since their return to the sport in 2012. This is a bike that could really do some damage in the right hands, and there’s no reason to say Vinales won’t see a return to form on board the RS-GP. Aleix Espargaro has clearly made a step forward this season, and as long as the Noale factory continues that forward momentum, this could be the best move Vinales has made in his career.
At the very least, Vinales can be safe and secure in the knowledge that he has made the right call here. His actions in the Styrian grand prix were not particularly smart, and I won’t be attempting to justify them here, but it clearly showed how unhappy the marriage between Maverick and Yamaha had gotten. Here’s hoping his new relationship with Aprilia blossoms into something far more rewarding.
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