Blue track suits dominated the podium at Le Mans on Sunday, but a lighter shade than usual was present in the form of Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Maverick Vinales. His first premier class podium, a possible instance of foreshadowing showed the 21-year-old next to the dark blue suits of the Movistar Yamaha team where he may end up next season.
Suzuki’s first podium since 2008 and a career benchmark for the second year rider, he downplayed the implications of his high finish as it relates to his upcoming decision to remain at Suzuki or take an offer from Yamaha.
“The decision is gonna be really difficult but every day is more clear and finally as soon as possible I will make it,” said Vinales. “For sure, I will make the decision soon. I don’t need to think [the decision] is whether I made a podium or not.”
If Vinales has already settled on Yamaha and is just waiting to make it official, then the podium won’t have much effect, but if he is still considering Suzuki then it would be difficult to imagine the factory’s best finish in nearly a decade won’t provide some pull in attaining the Spaniard.
Team Suzuki Ecstar knows this well, and in an interview with Motorsport.com, Suzuki boss Davide Brivio made it clear that improvements set for early in the season could help keep Vinales on board.
“That task began last summer when we explained our development programme for the bike,” Brivio said. “We knew that in the first three or four races 2016, Maverick would decide his future, so we had to take a step forward, and we have done that.”
Brivio said Vinales will choose teams sometime between Le Mans and Mugello because Yamaha does not want to wait too long.
An Improving Team in 2016
With just five races to make an impact this season, Suzuki has done just that.
Vinales and teammate Aleix Espargaro have finished inside the top six the last three races in a row. Currently fifth in the World Standings, Vinales only finished worse than sixth place at Argentina, where he crashed. Espargaro’s worst finish this year is 11th, and he sits seventh in the standings.
Vinales has already gathered over half of his total points from last year less than a third of the way through this season (49 points through five of 18 races), which is more a comment on this season’s huge success than any failure last season. In his 97-point rookie year in the premier class, he gathered points in every race except Brno and Motegi, both of which ended in crashes.
Last year at Le Mans, Espargaro failed to finish and Vinales came in the ninth spot. Improvements this year are undoubtedly due in big part to rider performance, but it goes without saying that Suzuki is providing better bikes. Vinales and Espargaro combined have finished every race this year but one. Among those nine races completed, they average a finishing position of 6.2.
Is It Enough To Keep Vinales Around?
Vinales voiced concern over his inability to maintain pace with the leaders during qualifying at Le Mans, claiming that rear tire sliding caused him to fall nearly a second off Jorge Lorenzo’s pole time.
“For me it’s always the same problem. I always say, also last year, that we need to improve the rear,” Vinales said. “The problem is, when I need to use the rear to turn, the bike doesn’t turn and it starts to slide. It’s one year that I say the same and I still have the same problem.”
The Suzuki optimist could see Vinales’ concern as a sign that he is invested in the team and wants better performance going forward. More likely, his interest in Suzuki’s performance pertains to the remainder of the season ahead. With an offer from the top team in the world dangling in front of him and the bad taste of recent dissatisfaction with Suzuki performance in his mouth, several signs point to a move. It doesn’t help Suzuki’s chances that Vinales’ third spot on the podium was bested only by the two riders from the team that is trying to sign him.
Brivio thinks an underdog Suzuki narrative could provide leverage against Yamaha in the fight for Vinales.
“Maverick can become a legend if he wins with Suzuki, because at Yamaha everybody expects him to do it,” Brivio said. “In any case, that is up to him, and maybe he doesn’t care at all. Maybe he only wants to win and that’s it.”
Vinales must decide which team offers the best residence to fulfill expectations regarding his being the next big thing. Yamaha has the track record. But Suzuki is making reasonable arguments, which is keeping things interesting.
“If he stays at Suzuki and we win, the story will be very inspiring because we started from scratch together,” Brivio said. “He arrived at Suzuki new to MotoGP, and we were also new as a team. From a sporting point of view it would be very inspiring.”
Vinales has a lot to think about: The future of his career. The future of the sport. The potentially history making intersection of those separate-but-bound unwritten narratives.
The French GP could only have made his decision more difficult. With a contract offer from the reigning champions, he just made recent history with an underdog team that is very much on the rise. Just how high that team can rise is the question he must answer.
