Today is the day of reckoning to determine whether the relationship between Vinales and Yamaha has finally broken off or whether there is still room for maneuver. Maverick was suspended from the Iwata plant on the eve of the Austrian Grand Prix because telemetry revealed that the Spaniard had deliberately tried to power his M. to damage1 during the race of the previous week. Vinales then decided to recite a mea culpa for the television cameras, admitting his mistakes and apologizing for the gesture. However, Yamaha made no further comment and reserved more time for the decision.
Today is the day, because a meeting between Yamaha’s European and Japanese bosses is planned to discuss the Vinales affair. There are several alternatives on the table: One is to draw a line under the whole thing and reintegrate the Spaniard into the team by the end of the year; another is to continue the suspension for the Silverstone GP and postpone the final decision; the last is the termination of the contract.
The first is the easiest (but perhaps less likely) solution because it would continue like this even if they were separated at home. The second would be to take your time and just blame the problem on the road, or rather part of it, because a driver would still be needed to plug the hole in Petronas in the UK. Indeed, in that case, Crutchlow would be destined to dress in the official team colors and get on Maverick’s bike, but leave a void on the Malaysian team that he still has to do without Morbidelli in England. The name of Jake Dixon, home rider but no MotoGP experience, has been mentioned as a substitute, but after all, you can’t be too picky.
The third option is the more drastic one that could leave Vinales in the balance. It’s impossible to know what is in Maverick’s contract, but if canceled for cause (if we will call it that) the Spaniard could be held until the end of the year. In a way, it’s a situation reminiscent of Zarco’s with KTM in 2019, in this case the Frenchman had the OK to do the last 3 races with Honda, which was more difficult for Yamaha to allow Vinales to do Aprilia to rise, with the For 2022 he has already signed in advance.
To know how things are going to play out, we still have to wait. The meeting is today, a press release will surely be ready for Monday unless you want to move it forward to tomorrow.