Alex Rins has delivered a stark and brutally honest assessment of Yamaha’s MotoGP campaign as the end of the 1,000cc era approaches, conceding that “we just need to survive” the remainder of a punishing 2026 season.
After a dismal first half of the year, Rins’ morale is at rock bottom, with the Spanish rider openly pessimistic about any imminent upturn in fortunes for the beleaguered Japanese manufacturer.
Currently, Rins sits as the second-best Yamaha in the championship, trailing only his teammate but ahead of Jack Miller and Toprak Razgatlioglu. However, with only 21 points on the board from 11 Grands Prix and Sprints-a paltry return for a factory rider and former MotoGP race winner-the scale of Yamaha’s struggles is impossible to ignore. His best finish so far, a single top-10 in the Netherlands, was a rare bright spot amid a season marred by uncompetitive machinery and persistent technical woes.
Speaking candidly after a frustrating German Grand Prix, where he could only muster 14th place, Rins painted a picture of a team simply trying to endure until the technical reset coming at the end of the year. “We just need to survive,” Rins declared, making it clear that expectations for any rapid improvement are virtually non-existent. Looking ahead to the second half of the season, he added: “Let’s see if they bring something. We will put some cans of oil close to the bike, to see if we can eat a bit of oil and can earn this horsepower! But for the moment we need to work.”
Reflecting on his race at the Sachsenring, Rins admitted that tyre management tactics backfired, leaving him with regrets about his approach. The Monster Energy Yamaha rider explained, “So, it is tough for me to explain, to have some comments about today’s race. We were expecting the problems we had. The only thing that I would like to [do], if we start again, I will try to push that middle part of the race to stay with Morbidelli; because I was taking a lot of care on the tyres, thinking [about] the end of the race, that in the end of the race my tyres were fucked also, but at least I was able to stay there with him. Nothing to say.”
As Yamaha’s 1,000cc MotoGP project limps towards its conclusion in late November, Rins’ blunt admissions highlight the scale of the challenge facing both rider and factory. The team’s focus is now firmly on damage limitation as they struggle to extract any competitive edge from the YZR-M1 in the closing chapters of a turbulent season.