Maverick Vinales believes he would have already become a MotoGP world champion had Yamaha followed his advice during their partnership.
Vinales joined Yamaha as a replacement for Jorge Lorenzo in 2017 after some impressive performances in his early MotoGP career at Suzuki.
The Spanish rider made a storming start to his career with Yamaha, winning the opening two races in Qatar and Argentina, and followed it up with a fifth round victory in Le Mans.
However, after these performances, Vinales didn’t win another race in the 2017 season and finished third in the standings behind Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso.
In a documentary by DAZN, Vinales believes the direction Yamaha went with the development of the M1 machine cost him the chance of fighting for a world championship.
“When I joined Yamaha, I came in like a rocket,” he explained in Maverick: two lives.
“I arrived with a clear idea, a clear objective and that’s the only thing I asked Yamaha for: I want to be world champion.
“I don’t want to be anything else, don’t make me be anything else because I want to be this, I’m not interested in anything else.
“When I got on the Yamaha at the Valencia test, I fell in love with it and I asked them not to touch it. I wanted this one, which was the bike that Jorge left.
“[I said:] Bring me this bike to Qatar, with this I’m going to win the world championship. But when I got to Sepang, ‘where is that bike?’
“I won the first race, I won the second, I won at Le Mans, it was one of the best days of my life, I won a battle against my idol, Valentino Rossi.
“But in Barcelona there was a wave of changes. I didn’t understand anything. I told them not to touch the bike,” added Vinales, who at no point said Yamaha preferred to follow the path indicated by team-mate Rossi.
Vinales and Yamaha would eventually part ways in a dramatic split following the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix.
Maverick Vinales: joining KTM was my ‘only option’ to win MotoGP title
Following his departure from Aprilia, Vinales made it clear that he still hopes to become a MotoGP champion despite missed opportunities in the past.
The Spanish rider explained it was this desire that made him join the Tech3 KTM team for the 2025 season.
“What is the next challenge I want? For me the challenge is to win the world championship,” he said.
“Now I have come to the conclusion that there are two sides: either you are the challenger or you go to the dark side. Either you go to KTM or you go to Ducati.
“At Ducati it is very difficult to win. How are you going to beat the official team?
“It is very complicated, you have the same bike, but not the same weapons. So I only had one option, to go to KTM and be the challenger.”
Comparing the three manufacturers he has raced with so far, the 29-year-old added: “Suzuki was pure passion, Yamaha was a ‘business’ and Aprilia a mix.
“Aprilia is a brand that lives racing and in that aspect they gave me back a bit of the passion I had for motorcycling.”
