Last year’s first race of two in Austria was the last race that Maverick Vinales would contest onboard a Yamaha, though he didn’t know it at the time. The Spaniard had already announced that he would be finishing his contract at the Japanese manufacturer a year earlier than anticipated, after one of the most sobering podium celebrations ever seen at the Assen grand prix some weeks prior. He was tired and angry, tired of being underappreciated for the work and results he provided the company and angry at the lack of change occurring around him. A rider who has always been driven by his emotions, Vinales was clearly at his wit’s end, and so had decided to cut himself loose at the end of 2021 and attempt to find happiness elsewhere.
At the Styrian grand prix, things went from bad to worse. Despite a solid qualifying result, Vinales stalled his bike on the line and was forced to start the restarted race from pit lane (the initial race was red-flagged after Dani Pedrosa and Lorenzo Savadori came together and a bike caught fire on track). Enraged at the situation, Vinales went into a self-destructive mode, constantly over-revving the bike in lower gears in an attempt to sabotage the Yamaha’s engine. Again, it was pure emotion and frustration, but this time he crossed a line in Yamaha’s eyes, and less than a week later they announced his contract was to be terminated immediately.
Fast forward to 2022. We’re now around a week away from FP1 kicking off in Austria once again, and Vinales can be found in a completely different set of circumstances. Only a few races later, the Spaniard was picked up by the factory Aprilia team, who were in need of a replacement rider after Savadori’s crash in Austria ruled him out for the rest of the season. He has now been racing onboard an RS-GP for eleven months, and his results have been rather transformative over that time. It took just two attempts in 2021 to score points on the Aprilia, and he now finds himself riding the crest of a wave, with two podiums on the trot and a thing going begging in Germany thanks to a technical issue.
More than anything else, though – more than the race results at least – Vinales looks and sounds like a completely different person. Aprilia have welcomed him into their family, and he clearly feels accepted and appreciated, valued for what he brings to the table and his sheer talent on a motorcycle. They’ve given him space and time to work on himself and the bike, knowing that patience would pay off in his case. When he was forced to retire from the German grand prix, a past Vinales would have been ballistic, but this time he found ways to be happy with the progress shown and grateful for the work his team had done. The man has a truly positive mentality.
The key to the combined success of Vinales and Aprilia comes down to mentality. Vinales, as I mentioned, is a man built on his confidence, and that would have required some reworking after the blow-up at Yamaha. It’s been visible how well Aprilia has handled him as a rider, choosing to work on individual elements of his performance alongside the bike’s. First, he learned the strengths and weaknesses of the Aprilia. Next, he learnt how to fight on it. Then he developed single-lap pace for qualifying. All this time, Aprilia have been guiding him towards the results they believe him capable of, and now he’s finally ready to deliver on them.
Vinales now stands on the precipice of a massive result. These last three races – Sachsenring, Assen and Silverstone – he’s looked to be in masterful form, only beaten out by the very best riders of this year (and in one instance, his bike failing him). Silverstone in particular was a brilliant ride by him, chasing down Bagnaia in the final stages and even getting a good move up the inside at one stage. He has won races on every bike he’s ridden in this class so far – and most of the ones he’s ridden previously in his life – and it now seems like we’re mere weeks away from his first win onboard an Aprilia.
The next important milestone for Aprilia and Vinales will be measuring his expectations for the remainder of the year. It’s a fair assumption that he will bag several more podiums over the course of the season, and probably at least one win, but both rider and team have to remember that he’s a country mile off in the championship battle. With teammate Aleix Espargaro currently second and just 22 points behind the leader, it will be crucial to the team that Vinales does what he can in the final eight races to aid his teammate in the fight for the title. Sometimes that will involve battling at the front to take key points away from rivals like Bagnaia and Quartararo – which he very nearly did in Silverstone on the weekend – but other times he will have to concede time and positions to assist Aleix in his quest for glory.
I have no doubt that Aprilia will handle this scenario well. Vinales has already admitted that his goal for the rest of the season is to help Aprilia win the title, and he must realise that wont be by his own hands (Vinales is currently almost 100 points down with eight races to go), so the logical conclusion is that he is ready to help Aleix if required. That mentality won’t stop him from going for big points if he can, however, and I think the key skill he’ll want to continue refining is fighting at the front onboard the RS-GP. If he can put all those puzzle pieces together, then 2023 could be a really big chance for Vinales to take his first MotoGP title.
For the time being, we can expect to see a continuation of strong performances from Vinales as he irons out the last of the kinks in his form. There’s a number of circuits coming up that the Spaniard has a fantastic record at – namely Australia and Malaysia – and finishing his season of in a strong way while supporting Aprilia would be a great way to close out his first season with the factory. And after that? We could be in for even more of a transformation out of Vinales.
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