Maverick Vinales’ 2021 MotoGP season ended about as far away from anyone’s expectations as possible.

Viñales began the year in his usual style, strong in testing, before clinching the opening race with a win on his Monster Energy Yamaha. From there, however, it was not the smooth sailing anticipated.

Two fifth places sat as the peak between Qatar and his second position at Assen, eight races later. Tensions were running high with Viñales openly disgruntled with both his factory M1 and the team around him while an explosive outing in Styria sealed his fate.

Splitting acrimoniously with Yamaha, the new father spent just two races on the sofa before a, much rumoured, call up from Aprilia saw him back up and running at Aragon, albeit at the back of the grid.

Despite the difficulties in understanding a new machine mid-way through the season, the Catalan remained positive about his future as the calendar counted down, and even more so as the final track action concluded after the Jerez test.

“We don't try anything specific, we just try to improve the feelings, especially on braking,” Vinales explained. “It's been an area where I struggled a lot, especially on races, but we make a big improvement with the bike, with the electronics.

“At the end the objective is done on the test so we are quite happy and quite pleased about how the bike was working, especially on the brakes.

“For us, turning is the area where we need to improve but somehow we understand how we can create that turning. We need to wait until Sepang to keep trying but it's nice that we have a direction, a clear direction, so fantastic! I'm very happy and very pleased about the test.

“I was used to a bike with a different way of braking,” the former Yamaha rider reflected. “I just need to readapt and the guys give me a hand, especially about the engine brake, to make the bike more smooth on entry and to be more comfortable. More stability, more comfortable and I can brake much later, so it’s fantastic.”

Although Viñales admits there is still much to do before the RS-GP feels like his bike, he is openly enthusiastic about the progress made so far.

“No, not yet, not yet,” he admitted. “We need much more things. We need more laps, more tests.

“After this test we have a lot of information on how to proceed for the future but I feel a lot of potential on the bike. I can feel it but step by step. Now we have a lot of information, they have in the factory time to work and then at Sepang sure we will have new things, new chassis, which will make everything much more easy on riding.

“We are going to try to use all the testing days we can, the only problem is sometimes that the bikes are very far away - for example, if we are in Qatar we cannot come here, train and then bring back the bikes to the racing. But we want to try to do the maximum days of test we can.

“It's very important for us to improve the bike. Every step we do, even if it's a little step, is gonna make a lot during the season. I will go to the factory, I will explain the feeling about the test, about everything, so I can't wait to improve and to work.”