Alex Rins, dropped and disappointed by Yamaha: "Redding’s criticism? Here’s what I wrote to him"

In 2027 he will no longer be racing with Yamaha, and Rins’ future is uncertain: the rider also spoke about what Redding said regarding his presence in MotoGP.

This weekend the Spanish Grand Prix takes place, and it could be another tough event for the Yamaha riders. The new M1 with a V4 engine has not proven competitive so far, and there’s a real risk of a heavily negative 2026 MotoGP season. While Fabio Quartararo and Toprak Razgatlioglu are certain to be on the grid in 2027, it’s a different story for Alex Rins and Jack Miller. Both seriously risk not having a seat in the top class and may have to race elsewhere.

It appears that Rins was not directly informed by Yamaha about Ai Ogura being signed as Jorge Martin’s future teammate. He learned everything from the press, and clearly that wasn’t the best way—he made that clear at Jerez: "I found out just like you did," reports Marca—"I’m disappointed, because it doesn’t put me in a good position. I felt very good at LCR and moved to Yamaha thinking I would have more opportunities, but that hasn’t been the case at all. It’s been difficult, I struggled to adapt to the inline-four engine and we switched to the V4 to get back to the top, but it didn’t work. I’m staying calm, though—I’m the same Álex who won with Suzuki and Honda."

Even though it seems hard today to imagine him on the MotoGP grid in 2027, the Catalan rider will do his best to put himself in a position to receive a good offer: "It’s a bit more complicated, but I’m very clear that I want to continue. I’m the same rider, an improved version—calmer, fitter—and I will fight 100% to stay here, which is where I deserve to be."

Rins was recently the target of a jab from Scott Redding, who believes there are too many riders in MotoGP who race thanks to having an Italian or Spanish passport. He specifically cited Rins as an example. The Yamaha rider revealed that he contacted his colleague, who is now racing in BSB: "I wrote to him saying, ‘Really?’ and he replied that it was just an opinion. I respect him and I don’t intend to get into it."

The 30-year-old Catalan believes he deserves his seat and has simply been unlucky in choosing the wrong technical project. He himself recalled that, after leaving Suzuki, he had the opportunity to sign with the Gresini team. He preferred the Honda LCR team because he was guaranteed factory-level technical treatment. After a year with Lucio Cecchinello’s squad, he chose to join the Yamaha factory team. And the rest of the story we know. Rins has no doubts about his value, but his future in MotoGP is compromised.