MotoGP: Yamaha praise Viñales for technical skills

The Movistar Yamaha MotoGP team have been full of praise for new signing Maverick Viñales after their first experiences of working with the 21-year-old, with the youngster’s feedback skills to his new crew chief Ramon Forcada in particular bringing many compliments his way.

Speaking at the official unveiling, team principal Lin Jarvis admitted that it had come as somewhat of a surprise to see just how good the Spaniard was in developing the bike.

“The response from the team has been quite good, and his feedback is very accurate, which is extremely helpful. He’s not vague and he’s not an engineer either; he doesn’t try to tell you what’s wrong with the bike, he just says ‘this is what I feel, this is what I’m experiencing’ and he’s pretty accurate about it! The team are happy with him.”

But while that might be a surprise for a rider as young as Viñales, the Spaniard says that his time at Suzuki has helped turn him into a more complete package. Working to develop the GSX-RR machine almost from the ground up, he believes that the skills he learned along the way will stand him in good stead at Yamaha.

“I think that I learned a lot in Suzuki. It’s not easy to develop a bike from almost zero, and I think that experience will give me a lot of advantage. I understand really well what the bike is doing thanks to that learning process, and I’m leaving Suzuki with good experience. I’m happy and grateful to them for that.

“When I jumped onto the Yamaha, it was a little easier to go fast – not under the thumb all the time and with the times coming a little easier. When you think like that when you’re coming from a bike where you had to ride every session at 100%, even on a Friday morning, then you’re used to it. So if I can bring the Yamaha to 100% every time then it’s going to be at a good level.”