GERNO DI LESMO, Italy – Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. has confirmed that Maverick Viñales has signed a two-year contract extension to remain with the Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP team through 2022.
Viñales joined the Yamaha factory team in 2017, earning a third-place championship finish. He finished fourth in the standings in 2018 and third again in 2019. He’s earned six wins since joining the Yamaha team as well as nine poles.
“I‘m extremely happy because I feel like I get to keep my own team. This will be the second year with my current crew, and after this I have two more years to look forward to. I‘m so excited,” said Vinales. “I think that if we keep working really hard we are heading the right way. For me, it was very important to make this announcement before the season started, because I‘m highly motivated and want to be able to fully concentrate on the 2020 season. I don‘t want to spend too much time thinking about the future. There were no reasons not to stay with Yamaha, because they feel like family.
“Our main objective is, as always, to be world champion and try to bring Yamaha the number one honor again. I will try my best. For sure, I will give everything I have to make our team proud too. I would like to say thank you to Yamaha for their faith in me. They are giving me a lot of confidence, and I really have trust in our partnership. I think we will both be growing very fast and we will keep pushing.”
The 25-year-old will begin pursuit of the MotoGP title on Feb. 6 during the first MotoGP test of the year in Sepang, Malaysia.
“We brought Maverick into the factory team in 2017, knowing he is a special talent,” said Lin Jarvis, managing director of Yamaha Motor Racing. “He is highly motivated and dedicates himself to being physically strong and is always ready to give his maximum and extract the best from his YZR-M1. In his first three seasons with us, he has given Yamaha six wins, 19 podiums, and 100 percent of his commitment. Now, as the YZR-M1 is improving race by race, we foresee a very bright future for him at Yamaha. Maverick‘s decision to sign with the Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP Team for two further years so early shows the strength of our mutual appreciation and underlines the shared conviction that together we can challenge for the MotoGP world championship title.”