Maverick Viñales is one of the riders to stood out the most in 2024, even taking a win already (at Austin). With some to put him on contender for the title, the rider in on the rise after a though period a couple of years back when he mentality was not at his best but now that everything is being the back, he is stronger than ever, he considers.
The Aprilia Racing rider recalled his time at Yamaha where he was constantly being criticised, as quoted on Motosan: ‘In Austria 2021, it was very hard, we received a lot of criticism, without reason, obviously, because not everyone is there to understand what is happening.I was criticised a lot about my head, I don’t know what. In the end, you can see, give me the bike, I’ll put on the gas and I’ll be there in front, I don’t have any mania or any problem or anything, of course’.
Contrary to other MotoGP riders who confessed to resort to pyschological help, that wasn’t the case with the #12: ‘I haven’t gone to any psychologist, I haven’t gone to anything. Honestly, I am… how would I say it, I try to be… how would I say it in a tribe from before? A guru, no, a sorcerer of yourself, you have to know yourself’.
Such moments made him grow, he assures, and made him stronger, with Aprilia by his side: ‘This whole experience has helped me a lot to get to know myself and where I am. We have taken very positive things from 2021 or 2022, which have outweighed the negative ones, but by far. We have grown a lot in just two years. That has been very good, it has made me very strong’.