Maverick Viñales will miss the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez because his recovery after shoulder surgery is taking longer than planned. His designated replacement Pol Espargaró is also injured, which is why Tech3 will head into the race weekend with Enea Bastianini only.
- Viñales misses his home Grand Prix in Jerez and is targeting Le Mans for his comeback
- Replacement rider Pol Espargaró has injured his hand and cannot step in
- Tech3 will run only a single motorcycle during the race weekend
For the Red Bull KTM Tech3 team, the race weekend in Jerez comes at a particularly unfortunate moment. Maverick Viñales is not yet fit again after his shoulder surgery, his planned replacement Pol Espargaró is also sidelined with an injury, and no short-notice alternative was available. The KTM satellite team will therefore send only Enea Bastianini onto the track at the first European round of the 2026 MotoGP season.
Viñales does not return in time
The background reaches back into last year: during his crash at the Sachsenring in July 2025, Viñales suffered a shoulder injury, and during the surgery that followed a screw was placed in his left shoulder. Over the following months, this screw worked itself loose. During the first free practice session of the Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, the 31-year-old Spaniard had to abandon the weekend due to pain and loss of strength. The medical examinations confirmed the diagnosis, after which Viñales returned to Europe and underwent surgery in early April to have the loose screw removed.
His goal was to use the longer break in the calendar created by the postponement of the Qatar race for his rehabilitation and to be back in the saddle for his home race in Jerez. On Monday, however, Tech3 made it official that the plan would not work out. „It is of course disappointing not to be on the grid in Jerez this weekend”, Viñales said. He speaks of the race being a significant event for him and his first home Grand Prix of this season. At the same time, he emphasises that he knows his body well and that a full recovery is currently his top priority. Everything is moving in the right direction, he says, and the new target is to be ready for Le Mans. The French Grand Prix takes place from 8 to 10 May, two weeks after the Jerez weekend.
The replacement rider is out as well
The absence of Viñales had already been on the cards in the days before the race. Tech3 had therefore firmly penciled in Pol Espargaró as his replacement. The 34-year-old KTM test rider is regarded as the first-choice option in the MotoGP paddock for situations like this, because he knows the current RC16 package and has already completed test work for the factory this season. But this plan fell apart as well: shortly before the Jerez weekend, Espargaró suffered a hand injury. No details on the exact circumstances of the injury have been released.
Tech3 then evaluated several alternatives. The wider KTM test rider roster includes Dani Pedrosa, Jonas Folger and Mika Kallio. Pedrosa has made it clear in the past that he no longer wants to contest full race weekends; Folger and Kallio were also ruled out as last-minute race starters because there are question marks over their competitiveness under current MotoGP conditions. In the end, the team and KTM jointly decided to head into Jerez with only one motorcycle.
Steiner and Beirer explain the decision
Tech3 CEO Günther Steiner describes the situation as an irony of fate and admits that this is not how the team wanted to arrive in Jerez. First Viñales was still in his recovery phase, then Pol injured his hand, and suddenly the plan changed very quickly. The team looked at the alternatives, he says, but it must also take reasonable decisions that are right for the team and the overall project. On the positive side, Bastianini arrives at the weekend with good momentum from Austin. That provides a strong basis on which the team can build at the start of the European season.
KTM motorsport director Pit Beirer strikes a similar tone. He says it is never an easy decision to start with only one motorcycle, but in this case it is the right one. Viñales must be given the time and space to recover fully, and Espargaró’s injury has eliminated the most obvious replacement option. Together with Tech3, they carefully assessed what would have been possible in Jerez, but they also have to keep competitiveness and the overall picture of the project in mind. Beirer says he is confident that Viñales is on the right track, and also points to the progress Bastianini showed in Austin.
Team manager Nicolas Goyon adds that the racing break has given Viñales valuable time for rehabilitation. He hopes that it will ultimately remain at this one missed race. Espargaró would have been a strong reinforcement in his view, because the team knows him well.
Bastianini as Tech3’s only card
Enea Bastianini heads into his special home weekend with some momentum. The Italian most recently finished third in the Austin sprint and took sixth in the main race. After three race weekends, Tech3 sits eighth in the team standings. In Jerez the load now rests on the shoulders of a single rider, which affects data gathering for development work as much as the strategic options during a race weekend with both a sprint and a main race.
The 2026 season start has been difficult for Viñales overall. After his switch to KTM, this is his second year on the Austrian machine, and he is working this season with five-time world champion Jorge Lorenzo as his riding coach. The preseason tests had initially given the impression that the aftermath of the Sachsenring crash had been overcome. In the first two races in Buriram and Goiânia, however, things did not come together on the sporting side, before the loose screw in his shoulder forced a decision at Austin. So far he has not scored any points in the current season.
Injury issues in the family too
It is the Espargaró family in particular that has been doubly unlucky heading into the European opener. Aleix Espargaró, Pol’s older brother and currently a Honda test rider, is also out of action. He had to undergo surgery after a test crash in Sepang, during which four vertebrae were fused. A wildcard entry for Honda, which had previously been on the table, is therefore also cancelled.
Debate about permanent substitute riders
The Tech3 case fuels a discussion that has been going on in the MotoGP paddock for some time: the question of permanent substitute rider arrangements along the lines of Formula 1. In Jerez, a race to which manufacturers traditionally also plan wildcard entries, KTM lines up with just three riders in total: works riders Pedro Acosta and Brad Binder, plus Bastianini in the satellite team. Marco Bezzecchi leads the riders’ championship ahead of Jorge Martín and Acosta, and the situation around missing replacement riders is unlikely to calm the ongoing debate.
Häufige Fragen
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Why is Maverick Viñales missing the 2026 Spanish GP?
Viñales underwent surgery on his left shoulder in early April to remove a screw that had worked itself loose. The screw had been inserted after his crash at the Sachsenring in 2025. The recovery is taking longer than planned, which is why he cannot race in Jerez.
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When does Viñales plan to return to MotoGP?
His stated target is to make his comeback at the French Grand Prix in Le Mans on 8 to 10 May 2026. He himself says that everything is moving in the right direction.
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Why is Pol Espargaró not standing in for Viñales?
The KTM test rider had been firmly penciled in as Viñales’s replacement for Jerez, but injured his hand shortly before the race weekend. No details on the exact circumstances of the injury have been released.
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Who is racing for Tech3 in Jerez?
Tech3 will contest the Spanish Grand Prix with Enea Bastianini only. The Italian most recently finished third in the Austin sprint and sixth in the main race.
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Why not Dani Pedrosa or another test rider?
Pedrosa, Jonas Folger and Mika Kallio are on the KTM test rider roster, but either have no interest in contesting full race weekends or are not considered competitive enough under current MotoGP conditions. KTM and Tech3 therefore jointly decided against a stopgap solution.
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