MotoGP veteran Alex Rins complains that his feedback is not being properly implemented in the Yamaha team – he “can’t copy” Fabio Quartararo’s style
Alex Rins is frustrated. Since joining the Yamaha factory team last winter, the six-time MotoGP race winner has not yet managed a real highlight.
It is well known that the Yamaha M1 is currently anything but the most powerful bike in the field. In direct comparison to teammate Fabio Quartararo, however, Rins not only falls behind in terms of results, but, in contrast to the 2021 world champion, he is unable to develop as a rider in the team as he would like.
Rins vented his frustration at the recent Thai Grand Prix race weekend in Buriram. After finishing a distant 18th in Friday’s practice, he complained: “Every time I come back to the pits from the track, I try to give my feedback. But so far, I don’t feel like I can be given a bike that suits my riding style.”
Although Rins has been through a few difficult phases in his career, he now seems particularly down in the final phase of the 2024 MotoGP season with the Yamaha team. “We are not competitive. And they are not able to give me a good set-up, a set-up that allows me to ride a bit more comfortably,” he says, referring to the engineers around his crew chief Patrick Primmer.
Rins describes his biggest difficulty when riding: “I tried two different chassis this weekend, but the problem is always the same. I can’t decelerate the bike properly. I give 110 percent on every lap I ride. But at least for me, they have to give me something different.”
In a direct comparison of the data recordings, Rins explains with reference to his Yamaha teammate Fabio Quartararo: “When Fabio brakes at a certain point and I brake at the same point, he can hold the line in the corner, while I myself come three or four meters to the outside. This problem has been going on for many races now. I just can’t brake this bike [properly].”
When asked if he could try the same or at least a similar set-up as Quartararo uses, Rins replies in the negative: “I can’t copy Fabio. I don’t have the same riding style as him. I really try to give my best feedback when I come back from the track to the pits, but for me, the bike just doesn’t work in the current version.”
“It’s not that there aren’t good people working here,” Rins continued. ”Yamaha is a factory team with the best people. Fabio has won a world championship title and many races on this bike. But now he is also finding it difficult. There must be a reason for that.”
In the races, Rins has only made it into the top 10 once with the Yamaha so far. That was at the Aragon Grand Prix at the beginning of September, where he finished ninth. His contract with the Japanese factory team was already extended in July for another two years until the end of 2026. For 2025, there will be a change on Rins’ side of the Yamaha garage. He will have David Munoz as his new crew chief.
Munoz, who was the crew chief for Fabio Di Giannantonio at VR46-Ducati this year and will work with Andrea Iannone next weekend, has worked with Yamaha teams in the past.
Munoz was the crew chief for Valentino Rossi in his last years with the factory team and also in the Petronas team in Rossi’s last MotoGP season ever. But Munoz has also worked with Rins in the past, namely in the Moto2 class in the Pons team.
Will Munoz be able to give Rins a setting in the 2025 MotoGP season that makes him feel more comfortable on the Yamaha?