A motorcycle like this in MotoGP is not a tennis racket, it starts with that. Every bike is a prototype, handmade, the motors are individually adapted. Very expensive materials are used to manufacture the motorcycles; most of the parts are made of magnesium, titanium or carbon fiber. The unit costs of one of the 360 km / h speedsters amount to more than a million US dollars, the engine alone is in the mid six-figure range. In this respect, those responsible at Yamaha cannot be accused of having carried out a so-called milkmaid bill before they announced on Friday that they would terminate the contract with the pilot Maverick Vinales, which was actually valid until the end of the season, with immediate effect. The 26-year-old Spaniard, to whom his parents foreshadowed the solid first name that even the quick-tempered fighter pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, embodied by Tom Cruise in Top Gun, only has as a nickname, tried to close his engine on the race weekend before last scrap. Simply that way. From despair. With intent.
“I had a frustration in me, an inner explosion that I couldn’t handle properly,” Vinales had said during the week as an apology. Hoping to move his case to the garage with a temporary suspension. But then he had underestimated the ruthlessness of Yamaha project manager Takahiro Sumi. If someone doesn’t show the necessary respect for the material, then from the Japanese point of view the fun stops. And so the collaboration between Vinales and the racing team ends with a bang. After driving alongside nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi for four seasons in the Japanese works team, he was duped by his successor this year: Fabio Quartararo is 22, four years younger than Vinales. The Frenchman leads the championship standings after eleven races, Vinales is seventh on the same motorcycle. In four and a half years with the Yamaha factory team, Vinales achieved eight GP victories. Quartararo, on the other hand, at Yamaha seven in twelve months. Therefore the internal explosion?
He thundered down the straight in fifth gear instead of sixth
A motorcycle is not a tennis racket, it does not bounce up and down or bend when it is harmed. The helmet also hides any emotion. In the case of Vinales, it was the on-board camera that caught him.
After the race was stopped due to a fire accident, Vinales drove into the pits at the Styrian Grand Prix. The team changed the clutch, apparently against his will, in the setup before the restart, the pilot then died of the engine. Vinales had to push, start out of the pit lane and pant after the field. Until the last lap. The on-board camera showed how he was turning the gas and acoustically recorded how he was repeatedly driving the speed of his engine to an unhealthy level. In the style of an American exchange student who is only used to automatics, Vinales circled through Styria in a howling vehicle, thundering down the straight in fifth instead of sixth gear before it rolled out into the pit lane before the finish and his engine there again howled properly.
The scandal has a history
It remains to be seen whether, as can now be heard here and there, he really risked an engine burst, which could have resulted in an oil leak that would have endangered his rivals on the racetrack. For such a case, a speed limiter is built into the engine, which is called that for a reason. His former team-mate Valentino Rossi said: “Obviously it’s a bad thing that shouldn’t be done, but it didn’t seem so extreme now.” Nevertheless: In the first anger, Yamaha only imposed a suspension, but then it dawned on those responsible that Vinales’ behavior, also in view of his salary of 6.5 million euros, meant a loss of face for the Japanese that was unacceptable.
Yamaha risks a lot with the decision. For the first time since 2015, the racing team can win the triple crown, i.e. collect the trophies for the driver, manufacturer and team. It will hardly be possible to find a similarly routine replacement for Vinales. But the scandal had a history: After Vinales announced in June that he would be leaving the team a year before the contract expired, he complained of a lack of support and disrespect. He had won the season opener in Qatar, in between he married and became a father, then was the last to dawdle around at the Sachsenring and in Spielberg before announcing that he would start for Aprilia in the coming season. “Maverick leaves because Yamaha didn’t give him a suitable motorcycle,” complained his father Angel Vinales. And so there is still a parallel to tennis. Where the complaining sports dad is known to have been invented.