Last Wednesday, Yamaha announced in a press release the signing of Alex Rins for the 2024 season. The news didn’t come as a surprise: the two sides had already negotiated last year and the interest was mutual.
However, the Spaniard is under contract to LCR-Honda for the rest of this season and one more, so he will have to terminate his contract. A possibility of termination which is included in one of the clauses of the agreement, on condition that a factory team hires him.
The negotiations between the Iwata manufacturer and the rider took place while Rins was waiting in a Madrid hospital for a second operation following a serious injury suffered at Mugello in early June. Injury from which he is still recovering and which will prevent him from racing next weekend in Austria.
Earlier this week Rins was a guest on Motorsport.com’s MotoGP podcast, giving an interview in which he explained what led him to make the decision to take the step, and also when it became clear to him.
“My leg is fine, my foot is still a little sore, the whole nervous system of the sole is still a little weak. But I’m making progress, I’m going to the pool and I’ve already taken a few steps without a crutch, I’m making progress,” Rins explained.
“I plan to go to Austria on Thursday to be with the team and see the people in the paddock. From there I will continue my recovery,” he added.
With many races of the season still to go and with the prospect of a team change at the end of the year, the important time for Rins must be to recover well from his serious injury.
“It’s the most important thing, regardless of whether we’ll change teams next year or whether we would have stayed with the same team. It wasn’t just any injury, it could be the hardest I’ve suffered and I have to heal and recover very well, because yes they may have lifelong mobility problems.”
“So the change of team has nothing to do with it, it’s important to recover well for myself. A fall when everything is still coming together and a screw or plate is moving could have its price”, he warns.
The truth is that the move to Yamaha is not a big surprise. Indeed it is as if the transition to the Honda LCR had been a sort of impasse waiting to get to the Iwata team.
“Last year, when we heard the ‘great news’ that Suzuki was leaving the World Championship, we knocked on every door and one of the ones we knocked on was Yamaha. They told us that for 2023 were fully booked, both riders were under contract, but to keep in touch. And so we did, throughout the second half of last year and all this year, until they made us an offer and we took the decision,” said the LCR pilot.
And all this in the midst of a serious injury, which may have influenced the decision.
“Well, it was a decision made in the hospital in Madrid, with my leg in the air. The truth is that it was complicated, there were many doubts, you know I’m not a person who makes drastic changes without thinking a lot. But it’s a opportunity that I can not miss, it is a factory team, an official treatment in the same team and the truth is that the opportunity is super good”.
And Yamaha has shown great faith in him by signing Rins in this situation.
“Without a doubt it’s a great show of confidence, it’s something that has added a lot. With an injury this bad, the fact that they have had this show of support for me and gone ahead with signing is spectacular. Maybe another team, in the event of an injury, he chooses a second option”.
Alex Rins and Fabio Quartararo will be teammates at Yamaha next year
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Speaking to Motorsport.com, Fabio Quartararo said that Rins’ arrival will change everything at Yamaha and that communication will be much more fluid, not like now with Franco Morbidelli who has a very different character from the Frenchman. A bit like the relationship between Alex and Joan Mir, with very different personalities.
“I haven’t spoken to Fabio yet, but we’ve kept in touch, he lives one street from my house (in Andorra) and the relationship with him is good. The relationship with me can be different from that with Morbidelli, just the fact that we are speaking Spanish changes everything”.
“As regards my relationship with Joan, yes we are different riders, with different ways of thinking, like all good riders have, like I’m sure Fabio has and I too, who without wanting to exaggerate, consider myself a good rider. But we also agree with Mir on many things.”
“I can’t wait to work with Fabio, he’s a very fast rider, I don’t know yet how he works or how he feels things, but now that things aren’t going well he’s able to stick his head out from time to time. I don’t I look forward to working with him,” he insists.
Anyone who doesn’t know Rins, for the moment, is the new team he’ll be working with in the garage.
“In principle, I will inherit the whole team that now works with Franco. I don’t know anyone and I don’t know how they work. The only one I talk to is Lin (Jarvis), and also Maio (Meregalli), I wanted to ask them, but I can’t I did it because I still have many races ahead of me with Honda and the LCR project has to get to Valencia. I’ll give everything to be as high as possible until the end.”
Alex Rins, Team LCR
Photo by: Marc Fleury
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