Vinales: New bike a small step, but…

On Monday Maverick Viñales made good on his vow from the previous day to spend the majority of Monday’s Brno test working for the upcoming grand prix at the horsepower friendly Red Bull Ring, rather than assessing Yamaha’s early prototype of the 2020 M1.

The Catalan posted only a small number of laps on the new machine and described the it as “a small step, positive.” But he wasn’t in the mood to get overly excited. Grip was good when on track.

An August test at Misano, which promises to be held in stifling temperatures, and a slippery track surface, should be a better gauge of its merits, he said.

“It’s just a small step,” said Viñales of the early 2020 prototype. “I don’t know if it’s in the correct way because we tried when there was a lot of grip on the track. That’s when our bike works pretty well.

“We have to try when there is no grip. I think Misano will be very good to try where there are hot conditions, very slippery. There we will know more realistic things.”

Does he feel it was a positive sign that Yamaha had managed to bring next year’s machine at this stage of the season?

“Sure, it’s always positive. In previous years nothing new never arrived here so the factory are working very hard. The few laps I did I did very fast. It was similar to the other bike, or faster. So that is always positive.

“But I made the last ones when there was grip on the track so we need to see at Misano in hot conditions in the worst case how it’s working.”

On how he worked for the Austrian Grand Prix, Viñales said, “Well actually I was working to improve my feelings from the race. Luckily for me in the morning the conditions of the track, the grip was very low.

“We could work pretty hard. We found a way to be better. But always the tests have been great for us. This is nothing new. We will try to keep calm and focussed in Austria.

“I was looking a lot for the braking. I was working for the front suspension. I was feeling much more comfortable with the bike on the brakes. Austria is a totally different track so we have to arrive there and see if we improve. Here it is an improvement on the suspension. We will see in Austria.

“It’s very important but we didn’t have any new items for acceleration so we wanted to concentrate with what we have to take out the best performance. We know we’re going to suffer with acceleration.

“In three years we didn’t improve so much the rear. We focussed a lot today to improve the front and to improve the feeling.”

The 24-year old ended the day with the second fastest time and had a new carbon seat unit fitted to his ’19 machine.

“It’s more tight,” he explained. “For me it’s better to handle the bike. I mean, it’s smaller. For me it’s easier to move on the bike, so I can move faster. But it’s not a big difference, honestly. We already have much more narrow than from the beginning of last year so it’s pretty similar. Pretty similar.”