Monster Yamaha MotoGP team boss Maio Meregalli has said that sometime he believes more in lead rider Maverick Vinales than the man himself and hopes that the problems of 2020 are behind them.

Vinales had a rollercoaster season brought on by the team using illegal valves which reduced the Spaniard to working with just two engines for the whole year and putting his own self-belief in question as a result of the lack of consistent bike performance.

“We have plenty of trust in Maverick and sometimes I really think I believe in him more than himself,” said Meregalli.

“Last year he had a difficult season because he had go deal with many different issues but we want to be focused on 2021.

“We’ve learned from it as a team and we are now aware of what we can expect for 2021. We can’t test in Sepang due to the continuing global pandemic, so the fans will have to wait a bit longer before they can watch our riders in action.

“We are feeling confident for the Qatar Test. Yamaha’s Japanese engineers have dedicated a lot of time and effort to developing the M1. We have a lot of new things to try, and we can’t wait to get started.

“We now have two young riders, who are both definitely very keen to get to work, so we are approaching this preseason with a ‘can do’ attitude. We are 100 per cent dedicated during the 2021 season.”