‘People say I have mental problems’ - Maverick Vinales defends stance on KTM fallout

Maverick Vinales has defended his stance on his current fallout with KTM over his 2027 MotoGP future, noting that he “signed a contract that was bad for my confidence”.

The Tech3 rider was due to step up to the factory KTM squad next year, but a difficult start to the season owing to ongoing shoulder issues dropped him out of contention.

Despite this, Maverick Vinales was a likely candidate to remain with Tech3, with KTM boss Pit Beirer stating on Friday at the German Grand Prix that this was on the cards.

But Vinales claimed on Thursday that he had signed a contract that was declared void by KTM around the Italian Grand Prix, and that he’d been left “burnt out” by the situation.

Beirer says the door is still open for Vinales to stay in 2027, though rumours continue to build that Luca Marini will take his place, while the second seat is set to go to a rookie.

“I trust in the project”

When asked about Beirer’s comments, Vinales insisted that he still has “trust in the project”, which is why he signed “a contract that was bad for my confidence”.

He also moved to hit back at people who said he has “mental problems”, noting that this happened when his relationship with Yamaha deteriorated in 2021.

“What I said yesterday is basically the truth of the situation and what happened,” he began.

“So this is the truth, and I don't want to hide the truth because, just as it happened in Yamaha, a lot of people start to say that I have mental problems. No, I don't have nothing [wrong].

“The problem is the teams that push me to the absolute limit with the things, with the decisions.

“They know very well that if I feel that the team is giving the maximum for me, I will give 1000% for the team.

“But as soon as you put me on the side, for me this is gone. I need to feel that I am valued for the project and for the team.

“That's why I always said that I'm really happy with the engineers. Because they give me the value I need.

“What I mean is what I said yesterday. I signed a contract that was really bad for my confidence. Even for the future; to make different decisions was very bad.

“But I trust in the engineers, I trust in the project. I don't know if it's still an open door or not.

“This we will see. But from my point of view, it's hard to say something. After all that happened, it's hard to find a light to go in with this.

“But what I really would like to do is to forget all of this. Trying to be positive and come back strong after the summer.

“For me, the summer is the point where I come back or I release and I try to do my best.

“But my target in my mind is to come back really strong after the summer. So that's why I need to keep insisting to try to go back where I can be.”

He added: “Obviously, every track has different difficulties. Like Mugello was very tough.

“Still, I was not ready. Assen very tough. Just in two corners, I lost 0.6 in two turns of direction.

“So still for me it's a way to go. But I think I'm on a good direction. So in the future, I have no idea. I have really no idea.

“At the moment, I understand that I'm at home for next year. But in any case, I will put the maximum I can do for the second part of the season.”