Press Release: Vinales Issues Formal Apology Over Sepang Withdrawal

By Press Release | Tue, 23/10/2012 - 17:07

Maverick Viñales today issued a formal apology in the form of a press release. The translated version, taken from the official MotoGP.com website, is show below:

Firstly I would like to publicly give my sincerely apologies to those that were harmed or affected by my behaviour in Sepang. I'm here to come forward, ask for forgiveness and take responsibility for my mistakes. I have returned to continue fighting with my Blusens Avintia team for the runner-up spot in the championship. There are many people who deserve it. Sponsors, technicians and the fans.

My hasty departure from the Malaysian GP was certainly not good. But with the tension generated by my position in the team, I fell into a state of anger and frustration that was certainly not an ideal state of mind to ride a bike in – especially ride it at the limit.

I made a mistake, because although I was not mentally prepared to ride the bike, I should not have left the Sepang circuit, or make such statements. And so, I apologize for the harm that has been accidentally caused, to all the fans, to the members of my Blusens Avintia team, to FTR, Honda, the championship promoters, and especially the sponsors of team (Blusens, Avintia, Repsol, Pacha and other partner companies) and personal sponsors (Alpinestars, Airoh, Wild Wolf, J. Costa etc.) that have both supported us, and without which I would not have achieved the successes to date.

I return with the aim to finish the season and regain second place in the overall standings, and for that, I will focus solely on sporting issues and work with my technicians to find the best set-up of the bike.

Finally, I want to express my strong desire to amicably resolve all the problems with the team, and to be able to concentrate on riding, which is what I really like.

2012
Moto3
Sepang, Malaysia
Honda
FTR
Maverick Viñales
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Comments

media and PR parasites make out MV to be the " enfant terrible ", all the while ignoring his POS manager's conflict of interest......The law pertaining to contracts signed by minors under Spanish law seems to have been brushed aside.

Avinita, the team with the biggest hospitality circus in the paddock, are deserving of his criticism as second rate. If there were more riders like MV who are not afraid to tell it like it is ( at least until they are cajoled into retracting their initial statements ....) racing would have teams that were racers first, not image whores.

I'm sure KTM would welcome him. At least there he would get upgrades...........

So yeah, if this were the land of OZ and you could just click your heels together and everything would be perfect...

In reality, KTM is a great engineering company that serves the lower class very well. That is this year for Vinales. He walked away from a potential championship, and next? He has pissed off a major supporting team, Honda, Repsol, and brought his own character into question, when he looked like the next big thing.

Great rider, huge talent, but terrible handlers and bad advice to let him get away with that. If I were his father I would have said - "yes, the team and bike are likely not up to it, but by winning 5 races and 7 podiums anyway, you have shown yourself to be the best rider, forget Cortese, who looked like a child one week ago. Now go finish the season and we will get you Marquez' ride for next year. Show them you're the best man too."

BTW think you have had a hard year Maverick? Would you change spots with Ben Spies or Hector Brokeback and Lostride Barbera?

A very well versed LAWYER statement not a Vinales statement. IMO he's too young to even contemplate coming up with something as clean and tidy as that.
I'm guessing here that his lawyer has looked over his contract and spoken with certain people and come up with "you aint got a leg to stand on boy" so now he has eaten a large portion of humble pie to save face and his job and its also probably dawned on him that Honda could potentially ruin his career.

Now get yer arse out there and give it some gas but do it quietly, not that the media are going to give him any peace.

This lad isn't in the ideal situation - there is a clear conflict of interest with his manager and the suggestion that it isn't the first time his manager has been involved in these sorts of affairs. You would think Dorna might have rules against this sort of caper, so the flow of talent between teams is not hindered. Vinales has acted very stupidly but it has brought to light some pretty shabby contractual dealings on Dorna's watch.

"and especially the sponsors of team..."

yeah kid. you don't want to lose those. They we're probably a little pissed when you decided to not race at Sepang.

Not defending his immature behavior, but SOMEONE in his camp should have talked him out of making his asinine statement, hopping on a plane and heading home because he was not happy with his situation... very unprofessional of course. Hopefully he'll learn a good life lesson here... in order to play their game, you have to play by their rules (whomever "they" are).

IMO - what MV should have done...is exactly what he did. Fly off the handle, burn a bridge, piss some people off, then when he cooled down and his lawyer told him some of the more realistic problems he may have opened himself up to, draft a nice letter, say he's sorry and go win some races. Because as we all know, if you're winning, all is forgiven.
We love Rossi to be outspoken, we all miss Marco, reporters actually pay attention when Colin Edwards is about to answer a question. We're motorcycle racing fans. We want loose canons. If we wanted to watch boring guys tow the line, we'd be F1 fans.
Hooray for MV!