If you’re checking for updates from Maverick Viñales on Twitter and can’t find them, it’s not your smartphone’s problem. The Spanish driver actually decided to delete his profile on the social media network, where he had around 363,000 followers. Why did Maverick decide to put an end to his tweets?
It all started after the Portimão race when some The wrong news had spread in Spain:: Viñales was reportedly so angry with Dorna for canceling his good lap in qualifying that he threatened to retire. Yes. Totally fake news, but targeting your Twitter profile was excuse enough for many. So Viñales replied to these rumors with a laugh: “I just want to winHe had written. But they were still harassing him on social media. “It’s wrong”, “We all have to thank Dorna for the championship that it gives us”, “I don’t look for excuses and I always tell the truth”, were some of his answers.
The whirlwind had already started, however, and Maverick landed right in the middle of it despite himself. Someone even wrote to give Morbidelli his bike. And that was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
“If someone deserves my bike, they should take it. I have no problem with that. I know where I want to go and I will at all costs. And if someone wants to criticize me, they should delete me from their Twitter account, otherwise I will delete mine.” And he kept his promise.
It is certainly nothing new that social media networks (too) often become battlefields where the truth of the information reported does not count and the desire to offend behind a keyboard prevails. Viñales learned the rules (or lack of the rules) of the game the hard way and decided not to be part of it anymore.
That can be a good solution if it allows him to regain some peace of mind, which is the real weakness of a driver with immense talent. This season seems to have started under a lucky star for him. He no longer feels in Valentino’s shadow, he had a little girl and he won in Qatar. But it seems like he got caught in an old vicious circle in Portimão that he has to find a way out of. Bikes and talent are what you need if you want to be a leader in MotoGP, but you have to believe in them.
After the victory in Portugal, his team-mate Fabio Quartararo explained the importance of relying on a psychologist in winter, because speed is necessary for a driver, but the mind must follow it without uncertainty. This social media mishap could be an important lesson for Maverick to focus only on himself. Now he has to prove that he has learned it.