Faced with a well-publicised dilemma between staying at the developing Suzuki squad or joining the title-winning Yamaha stable, Vinales eventually settled on the latter, making his decision after the fifth race of the 2016 season.

And while Suzuki has already secured a replacement for next year in Ducati outcast Andrea Iannone, Brivio believes his squad would've had a better chance at retaining Vinales if the rider market hadn't fired up so early in the season.

"Of course, I'm sorry he left - I have to be honest, I can't say I'm happy," Brivio conceded.

"We like this project and we were proud to take a rider from Moto2, see him grow up and learn more and more. We think that we could have continued together and we were trying to do our best to improve our bike.

"But the time played against us because, now we have 13 more races - I think our bike will be better by Valencia compared to now. But due to this MotoGP market, we don't have time to show.

"We only had one year - and this year we're in a situation where the market started so early. In reality, we only had one year, because this year, already in the first race, everybody was talking and thinking what to do. We didn't have so much time.

"But despite this, we created doubt, we created thinking. We did the best we could. In a normal scenario, a normal year, maybe this type of decision would've been in June, July, we would've had many more races together. But this was a strange season, a strange rider's market."

Vinales decision understandable

Despite his regret over seeing Vinales leave the team, Brivio said that the 21-year-old's decision was perfectly understandable.

"Let's say, if our bike will be competitive or not next year is uncertain," Brivio admitted. "Of course we are trying, I think we are improving more and more, but this is something that is uncertain.

"Maybe on the other side, you see something that is ready. I guess that is the thing.

"He chose 'ready', something that was more safe. I think everybody can understand that."

Additional reporting by Matteo Nugnes