Yamaha has announced that Maverick Viñales will remain with the factory team until the end of the 2022 season, the Spaniard signing a two-year contract extension with his current team.
Viñales has shown great riding, motivation, and consistency so far in his three years of racing with the Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP Team in the MotoGP™ World Championship. The successful partnership led to a third place in the overall standings in 2017, a fourth place in 2018, and another third place in 2019.
Further Yamaha highlights on the Spaniard’s résumé are six wins and 19 podiums, including his Yamaha debut race and Yamaha‘s 500th GP win in Le Mans, both in 2017, as well as nine poles in total out of 55 Grand Prix weekends aboard the YZR-M1.
These achievements on top of his undeniable talent and unshakable determination have Yamaha fully confident in their partnership with the 25-year-old. On 6 February they will start the first MotoGP™ Test of this year in Sepang, Malaysia, kicking off their 2020 campaign to clinch the premier class title.
Lin Jarvis, Yamaha Motor Racing Managing Director: “We brought Maverick into the Factory team in 2017, knowing he is a special talent. He is highly motivated and dedicates himself to being physically strong and is always ready to give his maximum and extract the best from his YZR-M1. In his first three seasons with us, he has given Yamaha 6 wins, 19 podiums, and 100% of his commitment. Now, as the YZR-M1 is improving race by race, we foresee a very bright future for him at Yamaha. Maverick‘s decision to sign with the Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP Team for two further years so early shows the strength of our mutual appreciation and underlines the shared conviction that together we can challenge for the MotoGP World Championship Title.”
Maverick Viñales: “I‘m extremely happy because I feel like I get to keep ’my own team‘. This will be the second year with my current crew, and after this I have two more years to look forward to. I‘m so excited! I think that if we keep working really hard we are heading the right way. For me, it was very important to make this announcement before the season started, because I‘m highly motivated and want to be able to fully concentrate on the 2020 season. I don‘t want to spend too much time thinking about the future. There were no reasons not to stay with Yamaha, because they feel like family. Yamaha is giving me a lot of support and, as I said, I have ’my own team‘, which is something I really need. We need to keep working and be very strong. Our main objective is, as always, to be World Champion and try to bring Yamaha the number one honour again. I will try my best. For sure, I will give everything I have to make our team proud too. I would like to say ’Thank you‘ to Yamaha for their faith in me. They are giving me a lot of confidence, and I really have trust in our partnership. I think we will both be growing very fast and we will keep pushing.”