Maverick Vinales, who will make his MotoGP comeback at Motegi this weekend after missing the last five races with a shoulder injury, admits he thought he “wouldn’t race again” in the 2026 season.
Vinales does not trust the Austrian manufacturer one bit, and even less so Guenther Steiner, the public face of the group of investors who completed the takeover of the Tech 3 team last year.
Last winter, executives at the Mattighofen-based marque made it clear to Vinales that he had a place reserved in the factory team’s garage for 2027.
However, the lack of consistency shown by the Spaniard during the first part of this season, as a result of the physical problems he has been carrying in his right shoulder, prompted KTM to make a U-turn and leave him out of the equation – not only from the factory structure, but also from the satellite team.
What hurt the rider most was that KTM did not officially tell him until 30 June, by which point there were no more seats available on next year’s grid. Since then, Vinales has not raced in a grand prix because of the shoulder that has caused him so much grief – he has damage to the infraspinatus tendon – and which he has tried to heal through multiple treatments in an effort to avoid another operation.
The latest of these protocols involves injections of platelet-rich plasma, which he says improve the condition by around 10% each month.
On Saturday at German Grand Prix, the Spaniard went home because of the limitations he was feeling in his arm, and from that moment onwards he began to think that his MotoGP career, at least for the time being, was over.
His relationship with KTM was just as fractured as with Steiner, which is why it came as such a surprise when the former Haas team principal called him 10 days ago to ask him to take part in the test held at the Red Bull Ring on Monday after the Austrian GP.
Maverick Vinales, Red Bull KTM Tech 3
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images
The conclusions from that test were positive, meaning Vinales will return to the track at Motegi, where on Thursday he made no attempt to hide his surprise at the sequence of events that has unfolded over the past few months.
“I thought I wasn’t going to race again this year. I was very surprised when they called me to do the test, and even more so that they let me try next year’s bike,” Vinales told Motorsport.com.
“The truth is, I don’t understand KTM. I just don’t understand what they want from me. I’ve tried many times to find some logic in everything that has happened to me over these past four months, and I can’t find it anywhere.”
For the first time in many years, the Spaniard has spent most of the summer at his holiday home in Roses (Girona), where he is from – he has lived in Girona for years – together with his wife and two daughters.
Motorsport.com understands that Vinales asked KTM to race again in Austria, a request that was turned down because of the risk of a poor result at such an important event for the manufacturer. However, Vinales was subsequently given the green light to travel to Spielberg, where he arrived on Sunday afternoon and completed a sprint simulation on Monday that cleared him to travel to Japan.
His objective at Motegi will be to complete each stage of the weekend, all the way to crossing the finish line in Sunday’s race. That is the first step in the journey he hopes will take him back to the MotoGP grid as soon as possible. How? Through one of the supporting avenues available to him, such as a test rider role, which could serve as a stepping stone.
“I don’t think my MotoGP story is over,” Vinales said. “I’m not ready to give up. I have to find a way back. I’d rather stay at home and wait for an opportunity to come along than go to WorldSBK. My shoulder won’t be the same as it was before, but it’s good enough to ride. Even more so the bikes next year, which are like Moto2 bikes but with a much more powerful engine.”
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
