Vinales to try 2020 brakes, 'only problem is the lever'

Misano is only rated 3 out of 5 for braking effort by Brembo, but after his spectacular accident in Austria Maverick Vinales has confirmed he will take Brembo's advice and try the 2020 front brake callipers again during this weekend's MotoGP.

The Monster Yamaha rider chose to stick with the 2019 spec in Austria on the basis that he hadn't experienced any overheating issues and didn't like the feel of the 2020 parts.

Vinales explained that the inconsistent feeling with the new callipers may have been due to pairing them with a used disc, so he will try with a complete set of brand new 2020 parts in Italy.

"In the last race Brembo recommended to us to use the new callipers. But I had a very strange feeling with those callipers," Vinales said. "I just tried them in FP4 and the feeling was bad.

"So I went back to the standard ones where my feeling was good. I did many laps in a row and I never had a problem until the race. That was the main mistake… It’s true Brembo always recommend the new ones.

"Anyway, I think it’s solved. We spoke with Brembo and we’re going to try new discs, parts and callipers here to see if it works well. In Spielberg it was just new callipers and parts. The discs were old. Maybe this made the difference with consistency.

"But that’s it. It’s in the past. We don’t want to make the same mistake, but for us it was very strange because we’ve never had that problem.

"Now we need to give [the 2020 brakes] a chance, ride more laps and see if we can gain a lot of consistency."

The consistency issue was in terms of how much lever movement was needed before the callipers began to 'bite'.

"My only problem is on the lever," Vinales confirmed. "For example, in corner 1 and 3 the bike started braking when I touched the lever. Then in corner 4 I started to brake when (the lever was) halfway. Not just when I touched. A little bit later.

"Some corners were OK but some others it (the lever) was in a different place when I started to brake. That’s why I used the old ones, because the brake lever is always in the same place.

"Anyway, maybe it’s a consequence of the used discs. Tomorrow we’re going to try. Finally, I think it’s mandatory for all the riders. We’re going to work closely with Brembo to solve that problem."

While the other Yamaha riders all switched to the 2020 brakes for the second Austrian weekend, Brembo said - like Vinales - KTM, Avintia and Aprilia remained on the 2019 spec for both Red Bull Ring events.

Having been forced to bail off his bike due to the brake failure, Vinales is now fifth in the world championship and 22 points from Petronas Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo heading into the pair of Misano rounds.

"I think the bike will work really good here," Vinales said of the resurfaced Italian track. "Also in Austria in the second weekend the bike was working fantastic.

"My mindset is good. I know we have a lot of potential. Now we need to put it on the track and perform at the best."

Having already had one powerplant withdrawn Vinales confirmed that, despite the extensive damage to his M1 in Austria, the engine was salvageable.