Pedro Acosta’s crew chief Paul Trevathan has praised Maverick Viñales and Manu Cazeau for guiding KTM by a tough begin to the 2025 MotoGP season.
Vinales joined KTM from the Tech3 staff this season and introduced with him the skilled Cazeau.
The pair first labored collectively in 2015 when Vinales raced within the premier class with Suzuki and celebrated his debut win in British MotoGP the next yr.
Their paths then briefly parted when the younger Spaniard was lured to Yamaha in 2017.
Cazeau later mentioned that had Viñales remained at Suzuki, “we might have fought for the championship”, however he reunited with Viñales at Aprilia earlier than transferring to KTM.
However after a slowdown over the winter and a disappointing opening race in Thailand, Viñales and Cazeau have been the primary to see a transparent path for the RC16 throughout the KTM camp.
“I did it within the warm-up in Argentina,” Vinales later defined. “Mainly, we have been wanting so as to add extra weight to the rear. We tried to manage the slide of the rear a bit bit higher going into corners.”
“As you possibly can see within the video, I all the time ended up going sideways underneath braking, however even when I did go sideways, I needed to have extra management so I may get to the apex in a greater approach and have a greater contact on the throttle.”
“All of it begins with braking. However there’s nonetheless room for enchancment.”
Viñales “opened the window” not solely to the bike’s set-up, but additionally to the likelihood {that a} smoother using model may work simply as successfully on the orange machine, versus the extra aggressive strategy utilized by the manufacturing unit duo of Acosta and Brad Binder.
Though not every part was instantly transferable, new concepts have been warmly welcomed by Acosta and Trevathan.
Maverick Vinales leads 2025 Qatar MotoGP
“Maverick helped the entire staff.”
“It is nice to have good teammates,” Trevathan mentioned. crash internet. “It helps the rider develop, it helps the bike develop, and it’s eye-opening.
“They do not all the time wish to imagine that somebody can do it higher than them, but when they take a look at the information and work the suitable approach, they’ll be taught from it.
“Maverick’s pure model is the precise reverse of Pedro’s model. So it was simply one other option to obtain the identical lap time. And it actually opened up (new concepts).”
Trevathan added that Acosta embraced new views with out ego.
“Pedro took it rather well. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, shit, asshole!’ It was like, ‘Okay, that is attention-grabbing. Let’s attempt it. Let’s have a look at. Let me determine it out.’ That is what he is actually good at.”
“Actually Maverick helped the entire staff and opened the window a bit bit for us to essentially perceive that there was extra potential.
“Additionally, his crew chief Manu, as a result of (Maverick) struggled at first however Manu did a very good job of steering the bike in the suitable path for him.”
“This can be a Maverick factor, so it did not work out for all of us. But it surely labored out for him and he was a really open man. He was very open.”
“So all this expertise coming into the staff can be very useful.”
Vinales led KTM within the race in Qatar, however was stripped of his first manufacturing unit podium of the season because of a tire stress penalty after the race.
The 30-year-old’s marketing campaign was later marred by a shoulder damage.
In the meantime, after a disappointing begin, Acosta turned KTM’s prime rider, scoring 12 podiums within the second half of the season and rising to fourth on this planet championship.
