Maverick Vinales thinks he could have clinched a title in MotoGP if Yamaha had heeded his counsel when he first joined the factory team.
The Spaniard was chosen to take over from Lorenzo in Yamaha in 2017 riding for the factory team, the youngster had proved his abilities to the team in junior categories and during his two years in premier class riding for Suzuki.
Vinales was off the mark in his first season with the Iwata-based brand taking victories in the opening two rounds in Qatar and Argentina and another in the fifth round at Le Mans.
But, he could not clinch any other race for the rest of the year and finished the year with a third-place on the points ranking table behind the leader Marc Marquez of Honda and second place Andrea Dovizioso of Ducati.
“When I joined Yamaha, I came in like a rocket. 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.” Vinales said.
“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. I asked them not to touch it. I wanted this one, which was the bike that Jorge left.” Vinales added.
Vinales will join Tech3 KTM for 2025 and will get factory spec bikes from the Austrian manufacturer.
The 26-year-old rider was the only non-Ducati rider to win for a grand prix this year and Vinales insisted he still has title winning ambitions but he believes it would have been impossible to achieve that dream with a satellite Ducati team.
“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.” Vinales said.
“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.” he added.
