Who slept the worst last night: Maverick Vinales

Dear MotoGP fans,

The Sachsenring weekend was once again a great celebration with a new attendance record of around 261,000 fans. It is you fans who make this event something very special and thus firmly anchor the race in the calendar for the future.

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At the beginning of our traditional Monday column, I must once again wish Marco Bezzecchi a speedy recovery. It is hard to believe how his season has fallen apart after the magnificent home victory in Mugello.

If it were a Hollywood movie, one would not believe everything that has happened to him since then. But as Marc Marquez emphasized: Karma does not exist. It is more like: When things suddenly don’t go well, bad luck also comes along.

Hopefully, everyone recovers well during the summer break so that we can see a great world championship battle in the second half of the season. It hasn’t been this open for a long time. And as we have seen so far, anything can happen.

Maverick Vinales was not part of the world championship battle and not part of the big party at the Sachsenring. It is now definitively confirmed that he will no longer race in MotoGP next year.

After the recent verbal battles played out in the media, the bond between him and KTM is finally severed. It is also understandable that Günther Steiner wants a fresh start, a new beginning with his team.

Ultimately, Steiner has taken over all valid contracts from Herve Poncharal for this year. He is now working on restructuring the Tech3 team for the future and shaping it according to his ideas. That is quite logical.

The Sachsenring as a place of fate for Vinales

How exactly the contract between KTM and Vinales was is known only to these two parties, as even Steiner said he has not read the contract. He stays out of it, and so do I.

For Vinales, it is of course extremely bitter that the shoulder injury he sustained exactly one year ago in a crash at the Sachsenring will ultimately end his MotoGP career.

It is bitter because it was the first serious injury in his career. Shoulder injuries are very tricky for motorcycle riders. He is not the first rider whose career was ended by this.

In addition, the KTM is physically very demanding to ride, perhaps the most demanding of all brands on the grid. Vinales’ teammate Enea Bastianini also confirmed this to us at the Sachsenring.

Moreover, KTM riders had to struggle with massive understeer at the Sachsenring. All this together, combined with Vinales’ personal disappointment over the end of his career, meant he rode last with a gap.

I think Pit Beirer had a valid point in his statements about the whole case. He said they have been waiting for a year now for Vinales to get fit again. That shows they believe in the talent he undoubtedly has.

Because until the crash a year ago, he was the reference at KTM. Vinales was better than Pedro Acosta. And of course, a fit Vinales would have been a candidate for the factory team seat when Acosta announced his intention to move to Ducati.

But looking to the future, it is a difficult matter for a person in charge to give someone a two-year contract when you don’t know if and when the rider will be physically fit again at all.

I mean, Marc Marquez initially wanted to extend his Ducati contract for only one year because he was worried about his right arm. Ducati wanted to bind him for two years, and Marquez finally agreed.

As a person in charge, you can take this “risk” with someone like Marquez, but Vinales is not Marquez, even though he has great talent. We all know he can beat anyone on his day. Unfortunately, those days came rarely.

Vinales himself states the core sentence of his career

This shows once again that talent alone does not make a great champion. In recent days, Vinales made a statement that, in my opinion, pinpoints the crux of his career exactly.

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“The problem is the teams that push me to the absolute limit. With the things, with the decision. They know very well: If I feel that the team gives the maximum for me, I give a thousand percent for the team.”

“But as soon as they put me aside, it’s over for me. I have to feel that I am valuable for the project and for the team.” Looking back at his career, this is a decisive factor.

When Vinales moved from Suzuki as an up-and-coming star to Yamaha to succeed Jorge Lorenzo, he won the first two races right away. Everything seemed set for him as the next world champion.

But then the whole wheel got stuck. Lin Jarvis did everything to make Vinales feel comfortable, including crew chief changes and personnel adjustments. Jarvis stuck with Vinales because not only he saw the fundamental talent.

I believe the final break at Yamaha came in 2021 when Fabio Quartararo was brought into the factory team. At the season opener in Qatar, Vinales took the win with a strong performance. He showed what was expected of him.

But then Quartararo took the reins and increasingly overshadowed Vinales. That Quartararo was now the wunderkind at Yamaha and no longer Vinales, I believe, led to the inglorious break in Spielberg.

But he got a new chance from Aprilia and Massimo Rivola. It took a long time for Vinales to become competitive with this brand change. But Rivola trusted his talent and supported him.

When suddenly Jorge Martin knocked on Aprilia’s door in Mugello 2024, it was absolutely the right decision by Rivola at that time to pull out all the stops to sign a contract with Martin.

I still remember well the rainy Monday test in Mugello when Rivola and Martin sealed the contract in the background. At that time, he assumed that the rider pairing for 2025 would be Vinales and Martin.

When Vinales came to the media center for his interview round that Monday afternoon, he said that after Aleix Espargaro’s retirement, he “does not want to be the new captain” of Aprilia.

I couldn’t believe what I heard back then. Aprilia had given Vinales a second chance, given him time to settle in. Shortly before, the win in Austin had shown what was possible.

Aprilia was on its way to the top, and Vinales was supposed to be part of it. But he apparently did not want to be the team leader, and presumably, the signing of Martin hurt his ego. You can see a pattern.

Photo gallery: The career highlights of Maverick Vinales

That is why Vinales knocked on KTM’s door. When suddenly riders like Vinales and Bastianini knock at this time, you have to take them. That was absolutely the right decision by Beirer back then.

He was also aware that Vinales is a sensitive rider. And everything was tried to make him feel comfortable. For example, KTM also hired his crew chief Manu Cazeaux from Aprilia, who is an important confidant for Vinales.

Until the fateful crash at the Sachsenring weekend a year ago, everything had developed wonderfully. That it now ended in a mudslinging match is an inglorious end.

What remains of Vinales is that he made too little of his talent in his career. On his day, he was unbeatable and could also beat a Marquez in top form. Unfortunately, those days were rare.

Yours

Who do you think was the loser of the MotoGP weekend? Share your opinion with me on Facebook or on Bluesky. There you will find my texts, insider information, opinions, and assessments on current topics. And of course, the opportunity to discuss this column!

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