MotoGP: Vinales hoping to improve consistency

Maverick Vinales is looking to improve his consistency this year to fight for the title.

Maverick Vinales is looking to find consistency in 2021 following on from his worst season in the class since his rookie year at Suzuki. Vinales finished the 2020 season in P6 overall in the championship standings with 1 win and 3 podiums to his name and a points tally of just 132 points, he was also the second fastest Yamaha rider with Franco Morbidelli finishing P2 overall and earning the title of the top Yamaha man, despite riding for their satellite team on the bike from the year previous.

Back in 2017 Vinales was the new hotshot, he joined Yamaha replacing Jorge Lorenzo after winning Suzuki’s first race since their MotoGP return, yet since 2017 Vinales has not been able to beat the points tally of 230 points, suffering more and more each season.

In 2020 consistency was the biggest thorn in the side of “Top Gun” Vinales who often qualified well before running around P15 for the opening laps of the race, cooking his tyres as he made his way through the grid, in 2021 he knows this has to change if he wants to fight for the title.

The bike struggled on many tracks but would then perform on others, this includes their historic 1-2-3-4 Yamaha result at Misano qualifying, a race which Vinales won the next day, yet in just the next round at Catalunya he finished in P9 and was even outside of the points at one point during the race with the Yamaha struggling around the Catalan track.

In 2021 Vinales and Yamaha are looking to improve the consistency of Vinales and also the bike, Vinales said, “It’s important to accomplish the title, we started strong last year but step by step our performance dropped so our mission is to be fast each race. For me it’s important to be consistent over being fast, we need to be consistent and for the bike to work well on all the tracks because sometimes our bike will work well and be unbeatable but in the next round we all struggle.

“Our mission is to not struggle on tracks we need to be competitive on all the tracks, this will be difficult as it is the DNA of the bike to work like this but we need to change this and we are working hard to do this, we need to improve our riding style and be smarter than last year.”

Vinales very recently got married meaning his life outside of racing is calmer and more tranquil, for Vinales this is very important and means he can focus more on racing without distractions, “This year I have everything I need and calmness in my life so I can concentrate on riding and to use my potential because I have been far away from my maximum potential.

“I feel very positive and have a good feeling from within myself, this is the year I will have a great year.”

Featured image – Yamaha Racing