Almost one year to the day that Yamaha confirmed the company was developing a V4 engine for MotoGP, we'll see it in action. We found out for sure that the engine was in development in September 2024, and we'll see it in action during the San Marino race weekend in Misano this September, piloted by Augusto Fernández, Yamaha's Factory Racing MotoGP test rider.
Fernández, the former Moto2 Champion and full-time MotoGP rider, has been at the helm of this project since he joined Yamaha as an official test rider in January. But the road to the track for Yamaha's V4 has been anything but smooth.
There was a point in 2024 when we thought we wouldn't see the V4 in action until the MotoGP ruleset changes came into effect in 2027, and for most, including Fabio Quartararo, that was just too damn long to stay uncompetitive. Suddenly, the talk surrounding the V4 changed from whether we'd see it compete in 2027 to whether we might see it before the summer break in 2025, and that we'd certainly get a taste of it in action before the end of this season.
As exciting as the prospect of a truly competitive Yamaha MotoGP bike is for fans, the reality of making it a reality takes more than just developing a V4 engine and sticking it in the chassis. The team needed to develop an entirely new chassis and aero package to work with the bike—Basically, a completely new MotoGP bike.
Once the bike was ready for private testing around Brno in July, it was reportedly around two seconds per lap slower than the current M1. If you know anything about racing, you know progress is measured in fractions of a second, so the V4 was lightyears off the pace in July, meaning it's difficult to expect much from the bike at the San Marino GP.
Of course, this push is needed to help Yamaha catch up to the European manufacturers that are pulling away in the championship. But I also feel being fastracked to show Quartararo that the Japanese manufacturer is investing in the bike, meaning more wins could be on the horizon for the rider who's currently in the prime of his career—although you wouldn't know it due to the machinery he's dealing with.
Quartararo has not been silent about the fact that the M1 simply can't compete and that he doesn't want to wait around, spending his best years on a machine that'll hold him back from competing for a championship.
