Maverick Vinales admits \u201cI kind of regret\u201d leaving Yamaha during the 2021 MotoGP season and \u201cchoosing Aprilia\u201d as \u201cI would\u2019ve gained more by staying.<\/p>\n
The 10-time MotoGP race winner joined Yamaha<\/a> from Suzuki for the 2017 season, winning three of the first grands prix that year.<\/p>\n He struggled to replicate this going forward, with Maverick Vinales<\/a> not winning again until towards the end of the 2018 season.<\/p>\n Tensions between Yamaha and Vinales reached boiling point across a disappointing 2021 season, with both parties agreeing to part ways a year early.<\/p>\n Vinales was then ousted with immediate effect, after he was found to have deliberately tried to damage his Yamaha engine during the Styrian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n He joined Aprilia<\/a> for the final rounds of 2021 and remained with the brand to the end of 2024, before joining Tech3 KTM<\/a>.<\/p>\n Maverick Vinales\u2019 MotoGP career regret<\/p>\n Speaking in a podcast with Jorge Lorenzo, his new rider coach, Vinales admits to \u201cregret\u201d over leaving Yamaha, but says at the time he \u201cwanted a change of scenery\u201d.<\/p>\n Asked how it was being team-mates with Valentino Rossi, Vinales said: \u201cFun and surprising.<\/p>\n \u201cRealising you were going faster than your idol was strange. But Valentino was super charismatic.<\/p>\n \u201cHe made everyone feel good. He had a huge influence in Yamaha.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201cI learned a lot from him, but it was also difficult.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2018, they followed a direction that was opposite to mine; engine, chassis.<\/p>\n \u201cAt Phillip Island, I had a good race because there was grip. But the rest was hard. I kind of regret not staying with Yamaha in 2021 and choosing Aprilia.<\/p>\n \u201cI would\u2019ve gained more. But, at the time, I wanted a change of scenery and to transform the worst bike of the grid.\u201d<\/p>\n Vinales says 2017 \u201cwas my chance\u201d to fight for a world title, but Yamaha went against his calls to leave the bike he tested pre-season alone.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201cI felt it was my chance,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the Valencia test with Lorenzo\u2019s bike, identical, only without wings, I did great times, without even looking for a fast lap.<\/p>\n \u201cLater, we went to Sepang. One day only, and I did the track record. I remember saying. \u2018This bike, cover it, and take it to the first race; it\u2019s more than enough\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThey actually brought another bike, but the first races were very good. The tyre change and poor grip, however, complicated everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maverick Vinales admits \u201cI kind of regret\u201d leaving Yamaha during the 2021 MotoGP season and \u201cchoosing Aprilia\u201d as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,40801,10671,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-366651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-maverick-vinales","tag-monster-energy-yamaha-motogp","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}