MotoGP title contender Maverick Vinales was inspired to turn off the start controls on his factory Yamaha at Le Mans after seeing KTM test driver Dani Pedrosa start training at the recent Portimao test.
“At Portimao I saw Pedrosa start without electronics. It seemed to be so fast. I tried, tried and tried. In practice it was really good. Better than the normal start. But in the race it was so difficult”, said Vinales in Aragon on Thursday.
“I need more practice to be competitive. I’ll keep trying. I’ll try to do it my way and I’ll try to be more competitive than the last race.”
Vinales, who had dropped from fifth to the top ten after the first chicane in France, said the problem was the noise from the other bikes next to him.
So in Aragon this weekend he will “try to find more bikes. It can be a really good start.” [without launch control]. I will believe in the beginning. “
The Spaniard still uses the holeshot to lower the back of his Yamaha and has normal traction control: “The only thing I don’t use is the launch control.
“I’ll try it [without launch control] because sometimes it doesn’t work right away. In practice it is 5 liters [of fuel]. When you’re in the race, it’s 20 liters on the bike. It’s quite different, the feeling. “
Start the controls “like a pit lane limiter”.
When asked about Vinales’ tactics, LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow explained that the launch control only limited the revs available.
“It’s just a rev limiter. It’s like a pit lane limiter, nothing more than that,” said the Englishman.
“What we would class as a start control is just a limiter, which means that you cannot turn the bike more than a certain point. When you let go of the clutch, it stays at that level and only accelerates above a certain speed.
“As such, it’s pretty simple. I play with mine, the RPM a lot. Depending on the circumstances of the start. I could say I need 500 rpm more or more or less torque, depending on how far you have to go.
“In Barcelona I had a lot of torque right from the start because I wanted to gain a lot of meters at the start, which I did, but after that everyone’s holeshot worked and I lost a lot of time.
“Starts are important, but I think qualifying is more important to be honest.”
Vinales starts this weekend with fourth place in the world championship, 19 points from his Yamaha colleague Fabio Quartararo.
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