Tech3 KTM rider Maverick Vinales may have already contested his final MotoGP race with the squad - and it's probably for the best if he has.

After Vinales's extreme candour in discussing his contract situation and airing out his disappointment with KTM before the summer break, and with his competitive form non-existent as he remains limited by his shoulder injury, KTM is exploring options to sideline him effective immediately - according to Motorsport.com's German Garcia Casanova.

The report states that Vinales will be replaced at the upcoming British Grand Prix by KTM test rider Pol Espargaro, who has proven an extremely capable stand-in during Vinales's ongoing injury struggles.

Vinales subsequently went on his personal Instagram page to dispute at least part of the report, decrying "articles without sense" - while also specifying that there were new medical developments in his situation.

"Last week I’ve been in the APC [Red Bull Athlete Performance Center] and we start to understand why I’m not able to recover. I’m contrasting all this information with my doctors to check if this is the problem and what is the way to improve.

"Stop writing stupid articles about me, I will not race in [World]SBK and I will finish the year as my contract says."

It would be a remarkable move for KTM to try to cut Vinales loose now - given its established reputation in MotoGP for handling rider contracts with what many perceive as a particular ruthlessness, with the likes of Remy Gardner, Iker Lecuona, Danilo Petrucci and Espargaro himself cited as examples.

KTM also has a prior for parking a rider mid-season. It did so to Johann Zarco in 2019, not long after Zarco requested - and was granted - the termination of an initial two-year commitment after just one year.

But there was nothing particularly ruthless or unreasonable in how the Zarco situation played out. And, in fact, it may well be the perfect blueprint for what should happen with Vinales.

The 10-time MotoGP race winner showed himself unwilling before the summer break to extend any kind of public olive branch to KTM or 'peacefully' serve out his current contract. That, of course, is very much Vinales's right - he has felt short-changed and accused KTM of breaking contract promises, and claims he has accepted the impending end of his MotoGP career, so has no reason to remain cordial.

He is also clearly not completely right physically so is currently unable to provide KTM any on-track value.

So if KTM knows it is not keeping Vinales, Tech3 knows it is not keeping Vinales (it is expected to sign up Luca Marini instead on an in-house contract rather than a KTM deal) and Vinales knows he is not staying and holds a grudge over it, continuing with this charade for another 11 rounds seems fairly counter-productive to everyone involved.

There is some hypothetical benefit. Vinales believes that only by riding a MotoGP bike can he restore himself to former MotoGP-level fitness, though that kind of approach clearly hasn't done very much at all over the past 12 months, as he remains a shadow of his former explosive (in a good way, in this case) self.

And both he and KTM would avoid the embarrassment of a mid-season divorce, the kind that KTM already underwent with Zarco and Vinales already underwent with Yamaha when he got effectively fired for trying to break an engine mid-race.

But tugging on this particular Band-Aid, pulling it off hair-by-hair, across the remaining five months of the season sounds a completely intolerable proposition. Vinales is no longer happy to be here, and keeps making it known, and KTM would surely rather not have to deal with the headlines.

If they go their separate ways now, everybody can start to move on sooner. Maybe it's not ideal for KTM to lean on Espargaro for a prolonged stretch of races, especially as he needs to stay healthy and surely needs to prioritise 850cc bike development, but Espargaro is one of the few testers in MotoGP who is an obvious competitive asset on-track even when racing against series regulars. And his general sunshine disposition will be good for the atmosphere.

And Vinales just needs to get away from this. He sounded last time out at the Sachsenring like someone who desperately needs a break of more than a handful of weeks, who is struggling to understand his body and who hasn't had the chance to really evaluate what he wants to do going forward. All the while, with every race, he is certainly not making himself any more hire-able for whatever prospective employer might appeal to him down the line.

The mid-season firing worked out for Zarco. Maybe he didn't need it - but he parlayed it into a superb Ducati stint and an eventual fruitful move to Honda. 

Whatever awaits Vinales down the line, whether in MotoGP or more likely in other racing, he's better off pivoting to that now - and KTM would be better off, too.