MotoGP News: Alex Rins Reveals 2025 Yamaha Changes After Reporting Major Brake Problem

Saajan Jogia | Nov 22, 2024

Apr 12, 2024; Austin, TX, USA; Alex Rins (42) of Spain and Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP during practice for the MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas at Circuit of The Americas. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Monster Energy Yamaha rider Alex Rins tested the 2025 Yamaha M1 at the post-season session in Barcelona, noting significant improvements in both the chassis and engine power. However, he criticized Yamaha for failing to address the persistent brake issues that plagued his performance throughout the 2024 season.

Moving from LCR Honda, Rins endured a tough debut season at Yamaha, where one particular problem significantly affected him. The lack of rear tire contact under braking led him to struggle while braking on corners. If he braked harder in advance, the front tire took a severe beating.

In the process, not only was the front tire life compromised, but crucial lap time and energy were wasted on braking since the problem prevented him from executing smooth corner entries. Rins finished 18th in the championship this season. Speaking on the problem, which he believes is being addressed by the Japanese manufacturer, he said:

“If I have to choose one, Yamaha needs to improve - for me - the braking and the entry.

“They weren’t able to give me a bike this year to be competitive in this area.

“I was struggling during all the races to have the rear contact and in the end when you don’t have rear contact you don’t stop the bike on braking side, it doesn’t matter the rest because you will go wide, or if I was able to stop the bike I overheated the front tyre and I broke the front tyre.

“After the race, I met with Max [Bartolini] and Massimo [Meregalli], I talk deeply with them and they apologised.

“So, I’m quite calm that they are working on this, but also we need to improve the power of the engine, the electronics also.”

Rins also addressed the marginal changes on the 2025 bike, particularly the engine and chassis. However, to ensure the power delivery is less aggressive, the 28-year-old rider has called for a better electronics package. He said:

“In set-up we did small steps, not all as I wanted, but after the race, talking with the engineers, they say that with the things that we are going to test it will not be a big change - it will not be zero to 100, it will maybe be five, 10% change.

“I tried something that I didn’t try during the GP weekend on set-up that makes my life a little bit easier riding the bike.

“Apart from that, Yamaha brought some new stuff, like a new chassis, new engine, and I felt really good with this new chassis.

“I was able to hold more speed in the middle of the corner. I was expecting the braking side to be better, but it was a very small improvement.

“And regarding the engine, it’s true that it’s more powerful on the straight, exiting from the corners, but at least with my riding style we are not ready to have this power.

“The bike was quite aggressive, spinning a lot, so we need to adjust the electronics for this engine.

“We didn’t work so much on the electronics, because we didn’t have enough time. We focused on the new engine, the new chassis, a little bit of set-up.

“For me, we were missing another engine to test with a different configuration inside. Maybe this was the fifth or sixth new engine I’ve tested.”