Maverick Vinales refutes suggestions that mental problems have held him back in his MotoGP career – But he also says: “Riders are not robots.
Maverick Vinales made headlines last year by parting ways with Yamaha in the middle of the 2021 MotoGP season and moving to Aprilia. At times, the Spaniard did not come off too well. Quite a few saw his mental health as a reason for his unsettled career.
Asked about this in the still young 2022 season, Vinales stresses: “Well, it’s a topic that always comes up. But I have to say that my mental health is fantastic. I couldn’t imagine a better life than the one I have.”
“I’m focused. But sometimes I expect to be in a position that I haven’t been able to be in the past few years for many reasons,” said the Spaniard, referring to his past at Yamaha, where he never came close to a serious title chance in four and a half years.
Vinales: Must let the emotions out sometimes
“So it’s normal for a sportsman to get angry when he gives his best but the result doesn’t happen. You can’t pretend that a rider is a robot because he has feelings,” he explains of his intermittent frustration. “We all have our problems.”
“But that doesn’t mean you have to push it and say you have mental problems. That’s not true, my mental health is fantastic. “
The 27-year-old strongly condemns the media’s attribution of Yamaha’s problems to his psyche: “It goes too far, way too far, because they always say my problem is the mental side. I don’t believe that. I know where the problem was. “
“The pressure from outside is hard to handle “
But at the same time Vinales says: “I have to improve, I have to get better every day. So I work with a psychologist, with a physiotherapist, with a coach, with my engineers, with my mechanics. You have to work every day. It’s the same game day after day. “
He admittedly also feels the pressure of expectations from outside at Aprilia. “Your value is always the last race, so you have to keep working hard,” says Vinales, who has yet to find his form. “The pressure is very hard to handle, to be honest, and I see that all the people expect me to win.”
“On one side it’s very good because I know people trust me and expect me to win. On the other hand, it’s difficult to deal with when you don’t make it. But it’s a pressure that always makes me push a little bit more. “
Espargaro breaks lance for sports pyschology
He is on his way to becoming “the best Maverick” step by step, he said. “And I’m not in a hurry. Sometimes it’s complicated because it pushes you to the limit, but it’s nice when people expect you to win.” To get there, Aprilia has formed a working group around him this year.
It includes a sports psychologist. This is nothing revolutionary in MotoGP anymore. Aprilia teammate Aleix Espargaro, for example, has been working with a sports psychologist since he was 15. “Since my first year in the championship,” he says.
“Especially in 2018 and 2019, I did a lot of meetings with him via Zoom, and I also went to Barcelona with him to work in a sports university. It helped me a lot. Now I don’t use it regularly, but every time I have doubts,” the Aprilia rider revealed.
“The head is the most important part of our body “
But that doesn’t automatically mean you’re not capable, he stresses. “You don’t have to be bad. Sometimes you just have to understand how to change things or structure your life differently. I find that really helpful because it gives you the view from the other side.”
That’s why Espargaro also believes that riders should take sports psychology as seriously as their diet and physical condition.
“In fact, we are paying more and more attention to our diet and fitness. But the head is the most important part of our body and our strongest,” the Spaniard emphasises the importance of mental health. “That’s exactly why I take good care of it. “
