The key changes behind the latest 'return of the Mack'

Under the lights of the Losail Circuit in Qatar, a series of factors came into focus and produced the most efficient version of Maverick Vinales.

Over the past two years, the determination that saw the Spaniard win races with Suzuki in 2016 and make an explosive start to his career with Yamaha in 2017 had started to run dry and been replaced by doubt. With Fabio Quartararo replacing Valentino Rossi at the factory team for 2021, many were billing this season as a crucial one for Vinales to ensure he wasn't blown away by the rider who won three races last year.

However, Vinales has addressed his issues one by one and on Sunday judged the race better than anybody, before disappearing into the darkness of Doha as the dominant force in the first of 19 rounds in 2021. Anybody thinking that the ninth victory of his career came smoothly would be mistaken, but this year ‘Mack’ has a new focus both on the track and off it that allowed him to deal with the setbacks he faced during the weekend.

The first came when his crew chief Esteban Garcia was unable to enter the track until Saturday, due to a reactive COVID test pre-weekend. Such a vital absentee in the build-up to the first race of the season could have been enough to unsettle any rider, but not this time with Vinales.

His performances in practice were strong and in qualifying he put himself on the front row of the grid, a strategy he and Quartararo had been talking about for weeks, citing a perfect start as their only chance to beat the Ducatis.  As Vinales put it on Friday: "If we get stuck at the start, we’re going to suffer a lot to fight back".

Maverick Vinales, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

But as good as his start was compared to past races, his Yamaha was powerless to hold off the four Borgo Panigale bullets and his new team-mate Quartararo, who all crossed the line ahead of him at the end of the first lap.

The perfect start had eluded him, but Vinales remained unruffled and stayed focused on the next stage of his strategy, finding the right formula to make five passes whilst still managing his tyres perfectly to have the rubber required to hold off Johann Zarco for the final few laps. As Quartararo put it, "he was just in another league".

It was an impeccable job by the 26-year-old. For the first third of the race he hung with the lead group without pushing too hard or getting involved in unnecessary skirmishes. From lap eight to 12 he went on the attack, picking off the first four of the five riders ahead of him. Once he’d made his move on the fifth – Francesco Bagnaia - on lap 16, he stepped up his pace by four tenths of a second between laps 17 and 19 to leave his pursuers without an answer.

Vinales has seemed like a much happier person in recent months, following the news that he will soon become a father. Unlike the general tendency in the paddock, at the age of 26 fatherhood has been an ambition for some time

“If you look closely, he passed them all in Turn 10,” a Yamaha team member pointed out to Autosport. “During free practice he was studying where he might be able to make passes and he decided that there were two good places for him – Turns 6 and 10. In the end he did most of his work in Turn 10, making the most of his high speed out of Turn 9.”

Vinales addressed this point too after the race, saying: “We have changed the mentality a little and we are stronger in overtaking. We have worked it to make the most of the strong points of the motorcycle, in the corners and the changes of direction.”

The new chassis brought by Yamaha for 2021 is lighter than the one that gave him so many issues last season, especially when he was trying to overtake. "The potential I had in the Yamaha in the past is back," he said afterwards.

This change, combined with a rediscovered level of determination, has produced a turnaround in fortunes that also has a human factor. Vinales has seemed like a much happier person in recent months, following the news that he will soon become a father. Unlike the general tendency in the paddock, at the age of 26 fatherhood has been an ambition for some time and Vinales' joy at the news has been more than evident on his social media feeds, with a series of posts dedicated to Raquel, his wife of one month, and Nina, his unborn daughter.

Maverick Vinales, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“There is a tendency to think that when riders become fathers their performance drops and they lose a couple of tenths a lap,” one of Vinales’ close staff members revealed. “I am sure that in Maverick’s case it will be the opposite. Maybe becoming a father is what he needs to put some of the bad things that have happened to him completely in the past.”

Apart from such a momentous moment that becoming a parent represents in the life of any person, the rider from Girona has also made a string of other, less direct, personal changes, which have given him this sense of control that he carried with him onto the bike in Qatar, especially in the race.

During the winter, he returned to his home town in the north of Catalunya, changing management agency and making full use of the many motocross tracks available in the area. In Andorra, where he is a resident and has spent much of his time in recent years, his routine was much more limited - by the weather and by the facilities.

“We’ve done more riding than ever,” says Angel, his father – another key piece in the puzzle that has clicked into place to produce the latest ‘Return of the Mack.’

Race winner Maverick Vinales, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images