The partnership between Yamaha and Maverick Viñales started out promisingly but the truth is that the Spaniard has only won eight times in almost five years and the best he has achieved is two third places as the best position in the championship.
In an honest conversation with the official website of the competition, Viñales admitted that he was lost in the pressure to do his best to fight for the title and that it led to his simply giving up on Yamaha:
– I don’t know why, but I haven’t been able to reach my full potential in the past five years. It was a challenge for me to become a Yamaha champion, that’s why I’ve stayed for so long, that’s why I kept trying. In my head I didn’t get it [because I wasn’t doing it] and I just thought: why not? I fought every day, it was very exhausting and I gave up. I gave up because I got lost in the process. I thought I could be on the podium more or at least fight for positions in every race.