Getting back to the top
Will Viñales challenge in 2019?
One person who will be glad to see the back of the 2018 season will be Yamaha rider Maverick Viñales. Waiting an incredible 28 races between Le Mans last year and Phillip Island this year for a victory, it’s been a year that has fallen well below expectation. Struggling from day one to find any sort of pace with the M1 machine as their acceleration and rear grip woes got worse from 2017 to 2018 after they went the wrong way with their sealed engine design, Viñales spent much of the year alternating between petulant brat and moody teenager. Lashing out at his team, his manufacturer and his crew, he made an already-difficult situation even harder as relationships within the squad disintegrated. Launching a war of words midway through the year with veteran crew chief Ramon Forcada that eventually saw the Catalan announce that he would be parting ways with Viñales at the end of the season, the tension became the story of his season. However, it’s finally starting to look like the worst has passed for the 23-year old. With improvements to the bike as Yamaha use electronics to patch the worst of the engine’s faults, he put together a stronger second half of the season, backing up his Australian Grand Prix win with a series of podium finishes. Now, with a tough year behind him and the lessons from it under his belt, he’s in a better place than ever as he heads into the 2019 season. Adamant that Yamaha should be able to fix the problems with small modifications to the bike, he says very little is now needed to return to winning ways. “The only item on the bike that needs changed is the engine. The chassis is really good and I never lose the front. I’m pushing the front a lot, sometimes trying to close the front on purpose to see what happens! We just need to create a little bit more grip on the rear now and to improve the engine braking.” Whether that fix has arrived this week at the Valencia test remains to be seen, but if it has, then there’s no reason why the Spaniard can’t return to the form he showed when he dominated
the pre-season tests and opening races of 2017.
But only time will tell and if Yamaha does not get back to consistently fighting at the front in 2019 and challenging for the title, a huge shake-up could be on the cards for 2020. The year that is meant to be Valentino Rossi’s final season.