Vinales should stay at Suzuki, says Schwantz

Vinales, who scored the first podium finish of his MotoGP career – and Suzuki's first since 2008 – at Le Mans on Sunday, stated that he would not let a top-three finish influence his decision over his future.

However, Schwantz, a Suzuki rider throughout his career, told Motorsport.com: "If I was in Maverick's position trying to make a smart business decision, a smart career decision, I'd stay at Suzuki.

"I'd think, 'if I can qualify the bike just a little better and launch better at the start, I can win. I could have raced at the front of every race so far.'

"The easiest thing to do would be to look at where he started and where he finished at Le Mans yesterday," Schwantz continued.

"If he hadn't dug himself a hole with a bad start, Maverick could have done what [Valentino] Rossi did and come from behind and challenged [Andrea] Dovizioso and [Marc] Marquez, even before they crashed.

"Maverick's pace in the middle of the race was very similar to Rossi's."  

Suzuki the equal of Yamaha

Schwantz said he is not convinced that Suzuki has a notable deficit to Yamaha any more.

"I spent a good amount of time with the Yamaha technicians before the race in Austin," he said, "and I asked them what Rossi thought of Suzuki. They said Rossi thinks that in the right hands, the Suzuki is a race-winning bike.

"It handles great, stops great, it's as fast as a Yamaha in a straight line… Basically, Rossi says that it could be a winner if it had a rider who could put a whole weekend together – qualifying, good start and racecraft."

The Suzuki GSX-RR was noticeably lacking in top speed last season, losing time to the Yamahas and Hondas in the second half of the longest straights.

Schwantz believes this is a problem that has largely been solved this season, thus curing the Suzuki's main weak spot.

"Obviously the Ducatis are still the strongest," he remarked, "but if you look at Qatar and Argentina this year, the Suzuki's straightline pace was almost identical to Yamaha's."

Asked if he thought a Lorenzo or Marquez could have won on a Suzuki this year, Schwantz replied: "I think so."  

Rossi puts teammates under pressure

Schwantz said it's imperative that when Vinales is choosing a team for next year, he doesn't underestimate the Rossi factor at Yamaha.

He said: "The problem with going to Yamaha is having Rossi as a teammate. If he belittles you, outqualifies and beats you, your value has gone straight down the tubes.

"Whereas if you stay at Suzuki, you don't have that pressure. You can work on yourself, improve the things you need to get better at, and become a more complete rider.

"And you hopefully will find, like I said, that the bike has the capability of taking the fight to the Yamahas and Hondas. It just required the rider to have built up the necessary combination of skills and race smarts and experience."