After crashing out on Sunday at Mugello, and with 15 grands prix still remaining before his departure from Yamaha, Alex Rins is making the most of the few opportunities left to extend his MotoGP career.
Considering the obvious limitations of this year’s Yamaha and the fact that the Japanese manufacturer has already shifted much of its focus towards developing a bike for the 2027 regulations, the Italian GP arguably marked Rins’ strongest performance of the season. The Spaniard has known for some time that he will not continue with the Iwata-based brand beyond 2026, when Jorge Martin and Ai Ogura are set to replace him and Fabio Quartararo.
While Quartararo secured his future with Honda months ago, Rins remains without a clear destination. The speed at which the rider market moved, combined with performances that have fallen short of the level he showed during his spells with Suzuki and Honda, have left him in a difficult position, especially given the limited number of seats still available for next season.
At 30 years old and after ten seasons in MotoGP, the Barcelona-born rider is fully aware that he may be living — rather than enjoying — his final 15 races in the championship.
Nevertheless, he has not given up, as he demonstrated at Mugello, where he was clearly Yamaha’s strongest rider. He was the only one of the manufacturer’s four representatives to secure direct passage into Q2. On Saturday, he finished 12th in the Sprint after starting from the same position on the grid, while on Sunday he crashed on lap 11 while running 15th.
Obviously, those results are not enough to strengthen a rider’s case, but they accurately reflect Yamaha’s current situation, particularly for Rins and Jack Miller at Pramac, who is also expected to leave MotoGP at the end of the season.
“I don’t have a bike that allows me to show my full potential. What’s going to happen next year? I don’t know,” Rins said on Sunday. “I’d like to stay in MotoGP, but time flies. I’m calm because I know what I’m capable of. If it doesn’t happen, life goes on. There are still a few seats available in MotoGP; I’m waiting for an answer.”
As things stand, the remaining vacancies appear to be concentrated at Trackhouse Racing and Tech3.
At the American team, everything points towards Enea Bastianini joining the squad, while the main question concerns who will occupy the second garage. That uncertainty only increased after Raul Fernandez’s Sprint victory on Saturday at Mugello.
At KTM’s satellite outfit, Maverick Vinales, Brad Binder, Luca Marini and Senna Agius are considered the leading candidates for the two available seats.
The fact that neither Rins nor Quartararo will be part of Yamaha’s project beyond 2026 places both riders in a delicate situation. Yamaha is already working with the future in mind, and it is only natural that some aspects of the prototype’s development are no longer fully accessible to its current rider line-up.
The situation also works in reverse. Quartararo has already made it clear that, given the current bike’s lack of competitiveness, his priority is to avoid injury. Rins, meanwhile, cannot afford to hold anything back because he is still fighting for his MotoGP future.
As expected, such a complex scenario can occasionally create tension within the organisation, although more so with management than with the people he works alongside every day.
“The good thing is that I have a very good relationship with my crew,” Rins added. “Within the team, things aren’t the same as before, I’m not going to lie. I’ve now seen people’s true colours. There are still a lot of races left, but I try to remain as professional and respectful as possible. That’s how I was raised.”
