MotoGP Mandalika: ‘Mental health is fantastic, pressure is good’ – Vinales

03.17.2022 |
cristina bulpett |
motorcycle gp

Maverick Viñales experienced a more complicated Qatar GP than expected, with the Aprilia rider finishing 12th and more than 20 seconds behind his teammate.

As Indonesia’s return to Grand Prix racing draws near at the Mandalika International Circuit, the Spaniard is confident he is on the right track with the RS-GP and is encouraged by Aleix Espargaro’s performance in pursuit of the podium last time. Although he remains cautious about setting a particular target for next weekend as he continues to improve on the Noale machine, Viñales was firmly inside the top ten during winter testing five weeks ago.

“I think it’s important right now that we don’t set ourselves any goals, especially looking at the position,” explained Viñales from Lombok Island, “because it’s a question of adapting to the bike, it’s still a bit complicated. Especially when I go to a track where I never race an Aprilia, it’s hard to understand,” he continued, referring to the Qatar season opener.

“It is difficult to push on the right path, however, we are working very hard, especially on this adaptation, because the bike is working quite well. We can see that for me at this point it is a bit more difficult, but Aleix is ​​working the bike well and is a good point of reference. ‘Okay, I need to brake that way, I need to open that way,’ so I still need time. I think in Qatar it was difficult because we arrived with very high expectations, but here it can be good. So we start especially with this kind of work, especially with adaptation and then we’ll see.”

Featuring a partially new track surface following complaints from riders after the February visit, a new Michelin tyre, combining the compounds that were offered in the test with a ‘special casing’ to increase durability in tropical temperatures , and variable weather forecasts, Viñales faces a challenging weekend on a bike he is still learning to master, but the Spaniard seems far from discouraged.

“I don’t think it will be difficult,” he replied. “The only difficulty I see is that we are going to ride with tires that have not been mounted for a long time, so we don’t know how it works. I think this is going to be difficult [part] of the weekend, but for me it is a process of understanding, a process of automatically putting the mechanics on the bike and it takes time. I think that in Qatar we adapted the bike quite well, what we had to do and that is also very important. We started the weekend positive, in MotoGP a lot can change from one race to another and we have to stay positive and strong and above all very focused on what we have to improve”.

Last season’s controversy and openly acrimonious split from Yamaha had many discussing the 27-year-old’s mental health, with concerns over his suitability as a MotoGP rider.

“Some people always push my mental side, I have to say my mental health is fantastic,” Viñales replied simply. “I couldn’t imagine a better life than the one I have. So my mental health is fantastic, I’m focused. But you know, sometimes I hope to be in positions that I couldn’t be in the year before for many reasons. So it is normal for a person to get angry when he tries his best, but the result is different.

“You can’t pretend a cyclist is a problem because they have feelings. We all have problems at home. We all have different things, but not for that, you have to push and say that he has mental problems. Not true, my mental health is fantastic. I am super good, if I was bad, first of all I will not ride a MotoGP bike. I think it goes too far, too far. Because they always insist that the problem is my mental side. I do not believe in that. I know where the problems were and I have to tell you that I work.

“This doesn’t mean you don’t have to improve. I have to improve I have to be better Diary. So I work with a mental psychologist, I work with a physical therapist, I work with a trainer, I work with my engineers, I work with my mechanics, you have to work every day.

“This game is day to day. Your value is the last race, so you have to work very hard. I’m actually happy you’re asking this question because yeah, the pressure is really hard to handle, honestly. I can especially see that all the people expect me to go there and win. On the one hand it’s very good because I know people expect me to win but on the other hand if you don’t it’s hard to handle. But it’s good, this pressure that always makes me push a little more. I am on my way to becoming the best Maverick. So step by step. I’m not in a hurry and sometimes it’s complicated because it puts you to the limit. But it’s nice when people expect you to have to win, it’s a good thing.”