Maverick Vinales joined Tech3 KTM from Aprilia ahead of the 2025 season. Vinales impressed on several occasions and was even considered a candidate for promotion to KTM's factory team. However, those plans never materialised following his injury and performance drop.

Maverick Vinales has claimed that he was promised a place in the factory team and even signed a factory contract that was later not honoured. According to Vinales, that disagreement ultimately led to the breakdown of his relationship with KTM.

KTM Motorsports Director Pit Beirer, however, disputes that version of events. Beirer said KTM never offered Maverick Vinales a factory contract, but instead presented him with a new deal to remain at Tech3. According to Beirer, Vinales chose to reject that offer, forcing KTM to move quickly in the rider market as other top riders became available.

As Beirer said.

"It's no secret that we had hoped that [Vinales] would be one of the factory riders in the future. Last summer, we were discussing this and opened this door. He told us ‘don't worry for my health, I'm back by Spielberg’. That's where he made his first comeback last year. Since then, we have been waiting week by week to have him in full form.

There was a moment when we had the chance to get Alex and Fabio, and in that moment Maverick was just nowhere near to show us that he will come back to that old form. We wouldn't need a better rider than Maverick was exactly here a year ago when he had this stupid crash in the rain.

I didn't know that this was not an option for him. He chose now to say that our second team….which is not the B-level team; both teams are getting on a first class level, especially now with Guenther [Steiner in charge]. The rider market doesn't get better by waiting and what do you think we are waiting for?

Waiting and not signing a rider was just purely to give Maverick more time to get ready, to show us something. I needed him to show me something. I cannot just take a rider and say, ‘Guenther, that's your rider'.

We started just a very normal contract conversation. We talked already about figures and stuff, how the future could look. But then at one stage things went just wrong when he found out it's not about the factory spot. I understand this frustration because that was his hope and him believing in the factory. He's ready to fight for the factory and so he wanted a seat in that one team. I don't know."

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