If the 2021 MotoGP World Championship resumes this weekend at Silverstone, it will do so without one of its front-runners as Yamaha stiffen its upper lip and move on to life without Maverick Vinales.
Much ink has been spilled over Vinales’ chaotic split and divorce from Yamaha, but the unfolding history of growing dissatisfaction does not obscure the significance of the bottom line … not least the damage it does to Yamaha, Vinales himself and his bank balance.
A quick recap of how we got here … including some key points that may have been overlooked in the original coverage.
Vinales was banned from MotoGP by Austria after it was discovered that he had spent the last five laps of the Styrian MotoGP with the M1 in low gears and overspeed, threatening catastrophic engine damage.
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It came after a season full of frustration for the Spaniard over the inconsistencies in his performance, which staggered from the highs at winning the opening race in Qatar to the low point of last place on the Sachsenring. The latter event sparked harsh criticism from Vinales about the M1’s lack of competitiveness, but insiders have hinted that it didn’t push in the race after crash pre-qualifying left him at the bottom of the grid.
At the core of Vinales’ frustration was Yamaha’s own growing disinterest in its concerns, a reason immortalized by the great results of new teammate Fabio Quartararo on the same bike. When Yamaha started turning their backs on him, Vinales sped up talks to get out of his MotoGP contract in 2022, which he succeeded in doing.
However, it was this separation from the engineers that ultimately led to Vinales’ Austrian MotoGP complaints when the clutch on his M1 was swapped out during a red flag stop, despite telling the team not to do so. Then he stopped in the warm-up lap and had to start out of the pits.
His frustration – compounded by two long lap penalties for lane violations that he claims had not been warned about – overflowed as he pulled it out on the motorcycle.
Yamaha was furious, he was suspended … Keyword embarrassed apology.
Why the seriousness of Vinales’ actions should not be underestimated
While one might think that the final decision to part ways with Vinales was foreseen by his suspension from Austria, the significance is far greater.
Regardless of the ups and downs results, Vinales still took a solid seventh place overall, which, along with Quartararo’s efforts, placed Yamaha just three points behind a mighty four-man Ducati Armada in the constructors’ championship – the championship that Yamaha most covets.
Removing Vinales from the line-up puts Yamaha at a disadvantage of its own, even before considering the lingering headache of filling two seats in its four-man line-up for next season, let alone in the middle of the middle of the year Title fight.
Given the decision to suspend Vinales from the Yamaha Factory team, it went all the way down to the board level, it’s a surefire sign of how angry they are with him for damaging his reputation in order to punish themselves by telling him lets go.
The financial – and personal – cost of losing a MotoGP ride in the middle of the season
While Vinales had spoken of a serenity in his decision to leave Yamaha at the end of 2021, just parting with a Yamaha deal in 2022 would have cost him 10 million euros.
Of course, money isn’t everything, but Vinales may have to get used to a life without a regular salary.
We’re not privy to the finer details of the termination, which may have included some sort of “redundancy,” but if Yamaha were forced to do so due to “negligence,” it would have reason to shut the taps immediately.
If so, an estimated $ 6.5 million more will slip through his fingers before you even consider the podium and win bonuses, plus anything that would come from a possible Constructors’ Championship win.
Although Vinales has a contract with Aprilia for 2022, he can with a significant reduction in salary to around 1 million. Then there are personal sponsors (monsters, Alpinestars) who might think twice about renewing.
Although Aprilia quickly mitigated bad headlines for Vinales by confirming him for next season right after the Austrian MotoGP weekend, Speedweek reports that there has been a backlash against the Spaniard and his reputation has really suffered.
In fact, Vinales was lucky not to have been completely thrown from the paddock, because if the engine had burned out due to his action, he would have spit oil on the track and created a particularly dangerous situation for the leaders behind him.
Worse still, he still hit the limiter in the pit lane, where marshals and staff gather. Just imagine the implications of a worst-case scenario.
However, the fact that Vinales didn’t break the engine is, as one insider put it, a combination of luck and his own incompetence a week ago … “
Ouch. I mean, thank god … but still ouch.