Some respect the rules and contracts, others less. Maverick Vinales since the start of his career has been part of the second category, more inclined to make his own law than to submit to that of others.
Having just celebrated his twenty-second birthday on January 12, Maverick has almost twenty years of motorcycle racing behind him, having started at three years old before launching into motocross, then into speed in 2002 in the Catalan Championship. 50 cm3. Serious things began at the world level with the arrival in GP 125 on an Aprilia within the Blusens-BQR team sponsored by Paris Hilton in 2011. The level of his talent was on full display from the fourth Grand Prix, when he won at Le Mans, before repeating this feat at Assen, Sepang and Valence. Third in the world, he was widely favored for the 2012 season in the new Moto3 category and he won five of the first nine Grands Prix (Qatar, Catalonia, United Kingdom, Netherlands and Italy) on a team FTR-Honda. Blusens Avintia. He was almost assured of the title... when suddenly Vinales became Maverick. The first name Maverick is of American origin and means maverick, independent, free electron. But why was a young Spaniard given that name by his parents? “ My father was a huge fan of Humphrey Bogart, explains Vinales junior. In one of his films, the maverick had the lead role and the speed of a top gun. It’s nice of you to pass this on to me. ».
Nice ? It depends for whom, and it is perhaps not the adjective that Antonio Martin Jimenez, boss of the Avintia Group (613,42 million turnover in 2016) and the Blusens Avintia team, but above all a great friend of Carmelo Ezpeleta, boss of Dorna. For a young Grand Prix driver, getting angry with him was like jumping off a cliff without a parachute. Maverick put his parachute in the back of his closet. And jumped.
While he could still be World Champion, he simply did not participate in the Malaysian Grand Prix, with three races remaining, having just finished second in Japan. The reason was that Vinales wanted to choose with which he would ride in 2013, while Avintia wanted to force him to sign a contract extension. To avoid becoming illegal, Vinales participated in the last two Grands Prix with Avintia (imagine the atmosphere). He then left to join the Calvo team with which he became Moto3 World Champion in 2013. His image and prestige were safe on a sporting level, and fortunately for him because his misdemeanor would not have encouraged many team bosses to hire this rebel if his results had been mediocre.
Maverick moved to Sito Pons in 2014 on a Kalex, and achieved the incredible feat of winning his second Grand Prix in this category, in Austin. He didn't dominate the GP, he crushed it. The big star of the category at the time Tito Rabat finished 4 seconds behind his young and unexpected compatriot. Tom Lüthi finished at 16.9, Takaaki Nakagami at 28 and Sam Lowes at 51. These same MotoGP managers, who had judged his conduct a little light in Moto3 during the Avintia affair, suddenly widened their pupils and peeled the sheets more closely. of time. “Character not easy to support but very effective right hand” was the general impression, and the doors of MotoGP opened to Maverick. To acquire the services of the young Spaniard, it was necessary to go through his manager Aki Ajo, the cunning Finn who has just won the Moto2016 and Moto2 World Champion titles in 3 with Johann Zarco and Brad Binder. Suzuki and Ajo did business, and in 2015 Vinales lined up the GSX-RR for its first race on thirteenth place on the starting grid in Qatar, with twelve riders in front of him and twelve behind. That year he finished sixth at home in Catalonia, as well as among the penguins at Phillip Island. We congratulated each other among the Japanese, Spaniards and Finns, and we took out a bottle of sparkling wine to wash down the new contract which provided that Vinales would ride for Suzuki in 2016, with an option stipulating that this would be the case again in 2017 if the manufacturer wished. Suzuki had just entered a minefield and was about to jump in with both feet.
Tomorrow comes next, with the renunciations of Ajo and Suzuki, on the verge of despair, and the smile of Kiara, the most successful fiancée in motocross.
