You are here

MotoGP, Jarvis: Vinales? Because he's not a star, he just wants to win

"Rossi was not involved in the decision. Pedrosa? He was an option. Iannone? He had offered"

Jarvis: Vinales? Because he's not a star, he just wants to win

Share


With the rain comes official confirmation - Vinales to Yamaha, Iannone to Suzuki. The announcements were followed by statements from the managers, with the words of Lin Jarvis, number one in the Iwata camp, proving particularly interesting.

"I’m very pleased with our decision – he said – of course, when you lose a world champion, like Jorge Lorenzo, it’s difficult to find a replacement. We had two options: an expert rider and a youngster. The expert was Pedrosa obviously, but I don’t know how the news got out at Le Mans, perhaps you know more than me in that regard. The youngster was Vinales, who was always our number one goal anyway”.

With regard to Rossi, who publically stated he’d welcome the Spaniard, Jarvis is very clear.

"Vale respected our decision but was not involved in making it. Of course we have to secure Yamaha’s future".

But who would have been the third option had Maverick refused?

"We hadn’t started any other negotiations but Iannone had informed us of his availability. A second Italian rider wouldn’t have been a problem, though our sponsor of course preferred a Spaniard, but we weren’t obliged to go that way".

Vinales’ change of manager didn’t have any effect during negotiations.
"For the simple reason - reveals Jarvis – that we never spoke with Aki Ajo".

Among the things that Lin Jarvis prefers not to make public is the future of some of Jorge Lorenzo’s key team members. Who will follow him to Ducati?

"We know the rumours (Forcada said he would leave if Yamaha were to take an older rider instead of a youngster - ed.) but we consider agreements we have with our members of staff to be a private matter. In any case, those who want to go are free to do so. Our contracts don’t contain any particular clauses preventing this. We’re nevertheless certain that we can offer Maverick a strong team".

Jarvis offered his own take on the anticipation of the market that led to more talk about contracts than about races.

"It all started because Jorge asked us if he could sign before the Qatar Grand Prix. It all stemmed from there…".

There is still one very promising rider without a MotoGP ride: Alex Rins. And Pol Espargarò hasn’t renewed yet.

"Alex was never an option for the factory team, but we would be very, very pleased to welcome him to team Tech 3 which has Yamaha bikes that are very close to those of the factory team. We considered Pol but believe that his Yamaha can achieve better results than he has done so far, last year he was not superior to Bradley Smith".

Finally, Lin opened up about the main reasons for choosing Vinales.

"He is not here to become a star of for the money, he just wants to be world champion, to be the best. And this is what convinced me".

Translated by Heather Watson
__

Related articles