Viñales/Yamaha, riders react: “It’s sad to get to this point”

On the occasion of the press conference which precedes the Austrian GP, ​​11^e meeting of the 2021 season, some of the drivers MotoGP have delivered their impressions of the announcement published by Yamaha earlier today.

For its part, fabio quartararo, teammate of Maverick Viñales in the Monster Yamaha MotoGP team, did not seem surprised. “ I don't have any particular comments, confided the leader of the world championship. I'm not really surprised. I think a lot of people know what happened (…). Difficult to say something. It would be better to ask Yamaha. But that won't change the way I approach this weekend.. "

Questioned again on this subject, the Nice resident added: “ I can say the bike is fantastic. All machines can improve in the areas we want, but he won the first race. He was far behind, he was able to overtake and escaped. The bike runs well and is consistent. I don't know what happened. Of course, we are missing some things, but it's not dramatic. We have the potential to fight for the podium, or at least the Top 5 on circuits where we cannot. For example in Assen, I felt extremely good. The bike runs well every race, so it's hard to understand. »

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Statement:

Yamaha regrets to announce that Maverick Viñales' entry to this weekend's Austrian MotoGP event has been withdrawn by the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team.

📰 https://t.co/Q7yUeXOVNq#MonsterYamaha | #MotoGP | #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/zKpmpmOqqR

- Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP (@YamahaMotoGP) August 12

Just two years ago, Johann Zarco and KTM announced their separation. The Frenchman experienced a situation which, on paper, could seem similar, but the double Moto2 world champion does not agree at all. “ When I suffered and wanted to leave, I didn't get on the podium at Assen for example, did he declare. I've been asked this question before and for me it's not the same situation. I think that in 2019, the KTM did not have the technical level that the Yamaha has. He wanted to change things, he did, but I don't know for what reason, he suffered here to such an extent that Yamaha told him to stay at home. KTM told me to stay at home, but I had three more races where I tried to do my best. I didn't do any worse than I did before. But after that, they told me to stay home, because they had things to develop and they didn't want to show them to me. I had the chance to move to Honda then Ducati. The situation is different... As Joan (Mir, editor's note) said, it's sad, sad to get to this point. But on the Yamaha side, they may also think that they have one of their riders who leads the championship and who finishes on the podium even if he encounters problems. “We know your Maverick potential, there's no reason for you to be where you are, so maybe you should stay home,” is, I think, what they must have said to themselves . »

For his part, Marc Marquez prefers to kick in by emphasizing that he has other fish to fry at Honda. “ As we know, the Yamaha/Viñales relationship was critical in recent raceshe recalled. Sometimes there are ups and downs between drivers and manufacturers, but getting to this point is very strange. It's happened before, but they know what happened and they need to explain it properly. But that's not my problem, we have enough in our box to pay attention to others. "

Viñales was spotted by Dazn's cameras leaving the Red Bull Ring. We won't have the Spaniard's version anytime soon (unless he expresses himself on Instagram as he did previously...).