Maverick’s ultimatum
Viñales threatens to quit unless he is No1 rider
Maverick Viñales has issued a clear ultimatum to his Yamaha team – a demand that he becomes the Japanese manufacturer’s No.1 rider or he’ll leave at the end of 2020. The 25-year-old Spaniard already has offers on the table from Suzuki and Ducati for the 2021 and 2022 seasons but while he’s no doubt tempted by a big money switch to Ducati or a return to the everimproving Suzuki – his focus currently is on remaining with Yamaha – but only if key changes to his contract and the garage hierarchy are made.
“I don’t want more money, that doesn’t interest me now, what I want is to be the reference rider for Yamaha,” the 25-year-old Spaniard told MCN. “And that means that it is me who will lead development of the bike. I don’t want a repeat of 2017. At the start of that year the bike we had was superb, it was incredible. It was the bike that Jorge (Lorenzo) left when he went to Ducati. I told the Japanese don’t touch anything because it was perfect. But then what happened, happened...”
Viñales wouldn’t go into detail about what caused his decline in race results but it’s clear he’s referring to the changes Yamaha team leader Valentino Rossi requested along with the 40-yearold Italian’s influence over a new
‘That means it is me who will lead development of the bike’
front tyre introduced that season. Now with three years experience at Yamaha and five in MotoGP, Viñales is no longer willing to let a teammate – even one as celebrated as Rossi – dictate the direction of the bike. The first evidence of this came mid-way through 2019 with Yamaha’s introduction of a new carbon-fibre swingarm. Viñales immediately considered the new swingarm a step backwards but was overruled. He told MCN: “The other side of the pit said the new swingarm was better, so Yamaha made me continue testing it on Fridays in various races, taking away sessions that I should have used to prepare for the race. In the end Yamaha surrendered and admitted the swingarm was not working.” MCN now understands that, in contrast to last year, engineers in Japan are now in favour of building their MotoGP project around young riders with Viñales and Fabio Quartararo at the top of the list. It now seems highly likely that Viñales is on course for Yamaha to meet his requests and become No.1 rider in the official factory team.