by VALERIO BARRETTA
Viñales, new challenge for 2025
Maverick Vinales he is used to having his bags in hand. The Spanish rider, having concluded his journey in Aprilia, will say goodbye to the Noale house to debut in KTM, where together with Enea Bastianini he will make up a very respectable formation in Tech3.
#12 certainly expected more from this season, especially in light of the victory in Austin which made him the only MotoGP rider in history to have triumphed in a Grand Prix with three different manufacturers (Suzuki, Yamaha and Aprilia). Instead, 2024 continued on much more anonymous trackswith Viñales taking two top-3s in the Sprints but zero official podiums.
Viñales’ words
It is legitimate that the Aprilia rider wants a change of scenery, if not even Austin has given him the push he needs to compete at the top consistently: “I feel like there’s always something holding me back from shining like I did in Austin.. And I have to understand why. My transfer was based on this“, Viñales admitted to MotoGP microphones.
“I couldn’t understand why it took so long to win in Aprilia. Because in 2022 the bike was very good, but Aleix (Espargaro, ed.) he had a great season while I couldn’t. And I don’t know why. Then in 2023 we brought in Manuel (Cazeaux, ed.) in the team and we found some things in the setup that were against my riding style. I suffered a lot from that, then we changed it and started to get good results. But I was always wondering why I couldn’t put it all together. In Austin it came, but I still think I can do more: if I had aimed to get good results, it would have been easier to stay. But for me, being fifth or seventh in the championship is the same thing.. I want to be in front: maybe I can, maybe I can’t.“.
“We need to understand why in Europe only one manufacturer has made a big step forward (Ducati, ed.) and we were not able to do that. So I am very curious to see if in the second part of the season we will be able to close this gap and fight again like we started the season, because we started like a rocket. And I think it is possible: we have the level and a good potential. Consistency is the biggest difference, I think: they are able to consistently get good lap times, especially in the race. We are missing the second part of the race. The goal? Saying goodbye with a third place would be fantastic. I’m dreaming maybe a little too much because I have to beat very important names. But it would be really nice“.
#Vinales #leaving #Aprilia #win
