Alex Rins on Yamaha’s MotoGP struggles: “We can do one crazy lap, but…”
Double COTA MotoGP winner Alex Rins gets edge grip comparison behind Marc Marquez.
Alex Rins returns to the scene of his most recent MotoGP victory as the world championship moves to COTA in Austin, Texas this weekend.
That triumph, the sixth of Rins’ premier-class career, came during a lone 2023 season with LCR Honda, helping him secure a factory seat at Yamaha for 2024.
However, Yamaha endured its worst season of the MotoGP era, finishing without a single podium while Rins went trophy-less for the first time since his 2017 Suzuki debut.
Rins then entered 2025 with higher expectations for his second season aboard the M1.
But despite promising winter testing at Sepang, Yamaha has slipped behind Honda to last in the early constructors’ standings.
“In these [low grip] conditions, Honda is one step ahead of us right now,” Rins admitted in Argentina.
Since 2021, Fabio Quartararo has been Yamaha’s undisputed leader but the arrival of Rins and new Pramac Yamaha recruits Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira is providing more insight into the bike’s potential.
“There is a lot of potential in the bike,” Rins said. “Jack adapted [to it] super fast.”
“We can do one crazy lap”
While the latest Yamaha has shown improved one-lap speed in qualifying, Rins echoed the frustrations of Quartararo regarding race pace.
“We have a limitation, which is grip. We can do one crazy lap but in terms of pace, it’s quite difficult to maintain. The drop is quite high,” Rins explained.
The M1’s edge grip deficit was underlined when Rins followed Ducati title leader Marc Marquez during practice in Argentina.
“When I followed Marc, I was struggling with the same issues I’d been complaining about,” Rins explained.
“You can see that Marc, all the Ducatis, have more edge grip than us. And this is something we need to fix.”
Rins starts round three of the season 16th in the world championship, with his 5 points to date from an eleventh place in the Argentine Grand Prix.
Miller is the leading Yamaha rider in 13th (8 points) with Quartararo directly ahead of Rins with 6 points.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
