Vinales joined Yamaha for the 2017 season and stayed there until midway through 2021, scoring eight of his nine MotoGP victories with the squad.
As his results slumped following a round one win in Qatar in 2021, the relationship between Vinales and Yamaha had soured irreparably by the time of the Dutch GP – at which he was on pole and finished second.
On the Monday after the Assen round, Yamaha announced it had agreed to part ways with Vinales a year earlier than his contract stipulated, before he was sacked after being found to have deliberately tried to damage his bike’s engine in the Styrian GP.
The 2023 season has been difficult for Yamaha, with Vinales noting that the complaints he was making about the bike in 2021 are the same as both Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli are making now.
“I really believe that time will give the reason as to why I left,” Vinales said on Thursday ahead of this weekend’s Dutch GP.
“I think a lot of riders now are complaining, as I was complaining three years ago.
“But in any case, I was riding behind [Yamaha in Germany] and they were struggling.
“Maybe they will arrive here [at Assen] and they are in front, I don’t know. But in the Sachsenring, they struggled a lot.”
Source: Autosport