Maverick Vinales has criticised the nature of the contracts governing MotoGP riders, which can lead to situations such as his own this weekend in Australia, where he is racing despite being far from fully fit because KTM will not pay him the agreed salary if he does not compete.
Vinales has been struggling with an injury to his left shoulder for more than a year, and has still been unable to make a full recovery.
The consequences of that crash during qualifying at the Sachsenring in 2025 were a dislocated shoulder and a fracture of the greater tuberosity, with damage to the supraspinatus ligament.
The injury required two operations: the first to insert a plate, and the second, almost a year later, to remove it after it became clear that it was doing more harm than good. It was during the United States Grand Prix, the second round of this season’s calendar, that Vinales decided to stop, return to Europe and have the plate removed.
Seven months have passed since then, and the Spaniard is still not fully recovered, a situation reflected in his statistics. He is the lowest-placed of the full-time riders, with just six points, having missed as many as seven rounds. That poor return has also cost him his place on next year’s grid.
This weekend, Vinales is bidding farewell to Phillip Island, the circuit that has always been his favourite and where he has claimed one victory and three podiums in MotoGP. It is a track where he has traditionally performed well, but on Friday and Saturday he struggled badly, hampered by the pain and restricted movement affecting the upper left side of his torso.
Maverick Viñales, Red Bull KTM Tech 3
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images
Given the limitations on his movement, the lap times raise questions about whether travelling all the way to Australia made much sense, particularly when he retired on lap seven of the sprint race because of the pain, swelling and highly unnatural riding position he has to adopt on the bike.
“For me, racing like this makes no sense, because I’m the first one who doesn’t want to be running at the back, and because I’m having a really hard time. My shoulder hurts, but if I stay at home, I don’t get paid,” Vinales told Motorsport.com when asked whether there was any point in competing in such a compromised physical condition.
The logic of the Catalan rider racing when he knows he has no chance of fighting for anything other than getting the bike back to the garage is certainly questionable. However, according to Vinales, he has no alternative because that is what his contract with KTM stipulates. The agreement makes it clear that he can miss only three grands prix before deductions begin to be made from his agreed salary, depending on how many rounds he sits out.
“There’s nothing I can do. Obviously, I got injured in Q1 while riding for KTM, but the contracts you sign are what they are. You agree that you can miss three races, and from the fourth onwards they start deducting money,” said the Spaniard, for whom the final stretch of the season will be particularly demanding given the accumulation of races.
“During the back-to-back races in Indonesia and Japan, I had a really tough time. I came back with bursitis and fluid in my shoulder, and the ligaments were in a really bad state as well. I needed a week to recover. The arm needs a proper period of rehabilitation, and over there I pushed it too far,” added the Tech3 rider, whose contract is directly with the manufacturer as opposed to Tech3.
Such clauses, however, are not exclusive to the Mattighofen-based manufacturer. Most teams include them in their contracts to keep their riders on a tight leash. In Vinales’ view, changing this should be one of the priorities for the riders’ association that MotoGP competitors now appear finally determined to establish.
“We need to put a lot of pressure on them to change this, because this is a dangerous sport and injuries are part of it. It’s happened to Toprak [Razgatlioglu] now: one silly crash and he’ll miss six races,” Vinales said.
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