Leg Injury Not The Reason For Bad Outcomes

Yamaha rider emphasizes his 100% fitness following Japan horror

Alex Rins has maintained that his lack of speed at struggling Yamaha has nothing to do with the limp he has been traveling with since his unexpected accident at Mugello over a year ago.

Both Rins and Fabio Quartararo have aired their unhappiness with the lack of grip on the M1 increasingly vocally of late. They have claimed several problems with the bike, which is the most susceptible on the grid to fluctuations in the level of grip from one circuit to the next.

At Motegi, the Spaniard and the Frenchman suffered with the Yamaha’s lack of traction and rear grip. Quartararo finished twelfth in Sunday’s Grand Prix, more than 32 seconds behind victor Francesco Bagnaia. He lost a spot to Johann Zarco on the last lap as a result of running out of gasoline.

It was the second such incidence in three weeks for Quartararo, after exactly the same trouble hit at Misano two races earlier.

Six-time MotoGP winner Rins had an even more disastrous Japanese Grand Prix. He finished second last, more than 40 seconds behind Bagnaia and ahead of just the Iwata factory’s test rider, wildcard Remy Gardner.

The Catalan, generally a gregarious rider with a strong sense of humour, was not much amused by his time in Japan. Apart from the result itself and the gap to the front of the pack, he feared it could also mislead viewers into thinking the performance level is down to something more than just the bike.

Rins still has a noticeable limp as a reminder of the left ankle injury he sustained when he crashed at Mugello last year, an accident that prompted him to miss more races (12) than he rode in (eight).

Another crash at Assen this season left him out of action in Germany and Britain. Rins’s best finish since switching from LCR Honda to Yamaha for this season has been a tenth place at Aragon.

Despite his dismal run of form, he maintains that the leg is not an issue at all.

“People start making wrong assumptions,” Rins told Motorsport.com. “If I had a left leg like my right, my results would be identical. On the bike, it doesn’t effect me at all.”

Yamaha is in the midst of a process of transformation as it tries to start pushing towards the top of the rankings under the direction of Max Bartolini, the technical director who arrived this year from Ducati.

In addition to recovering a satellite team in 2025, the Japanese firm has improved the V-twin four-cylinder engine concept. It expects to test this on track at some point next season.

Read Also: Michelin Responds To Bagnaia's Strange

But Rins and Quartararo may have run out of patience by then. “It’s obvious that we won’t have the V4 engine for the last races,” continued Rins. “If we’re lucky it will come on the scene in the middle of next year. We need something before that.

“We are reaching a critical moment. It’s not that we are not working, but that we’re not getting it properly.

“In every race, my heart rate doesn’t drop below 190 beats per minute. And that’s to finish last, 40 seconds behind the champion. It’s evident that this is not the way.”

Two Grands Prix ago at Misano, Quartararo’s seventh-place finish – which would have been sixth but for the fuel issue – was a breath of fresh air for Yamaha.

However, this was more attributable to the number of km covered at the track than an improvement in the prototype’s performance. Two testing and two Grands Prix in the space of a month provided the mechanics enough time to locate the rear grip that they miss so much on a regular weekend.

Another element at Misano, stated by Rins, was Quartararo’s liking for the track.

“What happened at Misano was not a real [breakthrough]. For Fabio, the music is like Austin is for me.”