RiderTua.com – Maverick Vinales hasn’t started the season well, he wants to turn things around at Portimao: he has to convince Aprilia to trust him to extend his contract for 2025 as well. According to several media, Maverick Vinales is currently under Aprilia’s supervision and is ready to evaluate changes (continue or be replaced).
Aprilia did not achieve what it had hoped for in the first race in Qatar. Aleix Espargaro’s slick performance in the sprint had made Aprilia confident that he could aim for victory in Sunday’s race, but instead the racer from Catalunya experienced problems with his rear tire and only finished in 8th place. Things got worse for Maverick Vinales, ranked 9th on Saturday and 10th on Sunday. The weekend was too far below expectations.
Maverick Vinales Will Not Have His Contract Extended?
At the end of the Qatar race, the 29 year old rider reflected on why he was not competitive. Maverick said that he had to be critical of himself, because this was not the level they should be at. “We ended last year with a bike that we used to reach pole position and be able to fight for victory, this year we start from scratch. We have to understand and build. In this race we collected very good data to analyze in order to continue improving. We ride a practically new bike.”
Vinales already said at the pre-season test that there are quite significant changes to the 2024 RS-GP, therefore it is still necessary to adapt to the new features, a process that takes time.. The Spaniard doesn’t see any major problems, but there are four details that must be corrected to make a really big leap. For Vinales the main thing was to make the front of the bike work better, in the race he suffered a lot because there was a lot of degradation and it forced him to slow down. He was satisfied with the acceleration and rear grip of the latest Aprilia motorbike, he said..
The former Suzuki and Yamaha rider knows what he needs to achieve a much better result than what he achieved in Qatar. Together with the Aprilia team he will work hard to change things at the next GP in Portugal. Meanwhile, he wonders why the front of his RS-GP isn’t working as he expected.. “Why isn’t it working well? There are a thousand stories, the aerodynamics I don’t know… It’s very different to last year. We need to find the key, it’s not easy.”
Data collected in Qatar will be important in identifying solutions that will enable it to solve the problem. Vinales must produce good results, his contract expires at the end of 2024 and Massimo Rivola is looking at what happens in 2025. Riders such as Fabio Quartararo, Enea Bastianini and Marco Bezzecchi are also out of contract and are tempting for the team and Aprilia’s top management. Of course, Espargaro’s situation must also be taken into account, who, as mentioned by his colleagues, has an agreement that expires at the end of the year. A choice for the future will probably be made mid-season.
