Yamaha's V4 bike MotoGP project is being developed more and more intensively but remains "not fast enough" - with the manufacturer reluctant to publicly commit to racing it in 2026.
For months now Yamaha has looked to strike a delicate balance between continued development of its current inline-four engined M1 bike and the new V4 project, and this has paid dividends for the in-weekend performance this year - with Fabio Quartararo often capitalising on its much-improved qualifying potential and coming within a handful of laps of winning the British Grand Prix.
Quartararo, though, has been clear in his public messaging that the V4 should be already the short-term future - even ahead of the long-assumed switch to that engine configuration for the 850cc unit in 2027. And this appears to be a stance shared by figures including test rider Augusto Fernandez.
So why hasn't a formal commitment been made, and a full switch taken place to V4 development?
A lot of it appears to be caution over whether the V4 bike can definitely be brought up to the requisite competitive level in the allotted time. Alex Rins revealed at the Sachsenring that during a recent private test at Brno, the site of this weekend's MotoGP round, the V4's best lap was two seconds off the current bike.
In MotoGP parlance, this is an eternity. "I heard some positive things, but for me what really matters is about the laptime and the laptime is still super slow with the V4," Quartararo had summed up - even though his apparent stance remains that Yamaha would be wise to pursue this V4 2026 reset.
Test rider Fernandez, running as a wildcard this weekend for the Czech Grand Prix's return, offered a fairly comprehensive update on where the V4 stands in his Thursday media session.
His and the test team's focus is now "more and more on the V4", he admitted, but he said they needed "to accelerate the process".
"Because if we want to race with the V4 next year, we still need to do a lot of work," he said.
"The last test, it's not the full package still. The engine is not the full one. Everything is just very early, for everything.
"We've got the first chassis...we are getting new things but we need to accelerate the process, is what I want to say. It's looking good. It looks very positive, everything, but still not fast enough. That's what will decide [the plan] for next year.
"So, let's see if in the next months, during this summer we have some tests, to try to accelerate the process and have the bike ready for the end of the season."
Asked by The Race whether it was clear where more laptime would come next, Fernandez revealed that the V4 engine is running detuned right now.
"From Japan, they don't give us all the power that the engine can give.
"For me, they want to understand very well without breaking everything. They give us [more power] little by little. In Japan, things are done like that, no? They want to understand very well the things. Nothing against that.
"At some point, we will need to see which one is faster in terms of laptime. It's what will decide. But there's no negative, it's nothing - we just need to see better laptimes. We're doing a good job, I think Yamaha is doing a good job, it will be a good bike, but we will see."
Fernandez said it has a very different balance to the current M1 and that it "looks like it has better potential".
He said it was "not similar" to the other V4 he's experienced in MotoGP, the KTM RC16 version.
"They are following their own way. A Yamaha V4, [that] is the project. And with my experience, short experience, and Dovi's [fellow test rider Andrea Dovizioso's] one with that kind of bike, I think it's a good mix, it's a good package, to see the direction.
"But this is a particular V4. A Yamaha V4."
Asked by The Race whether the easiest way of "accelerating the process" is simply pivoting harder away from any M1 development, Fernandez said: "This will happen, this will happen. I've been working on the V4 more and more in the last tests.
"Of course without forgetting our M1. But we are at the end of the M1 project. Everyone in Yamaha is fully focused on the V4 right now. But we need a little bit more time."
The idea of a straight laptime-versus-laptime shootout between the two bikes is difficult to accept at face value. Surely, if the V4 is at all close enough over the next few months, it will get the nod as the 2026 Yamaha choice.
But the definition of 'close enough' is what then becomes the point of intrigue.
In Yamaha's case, it is surely Quartararo's specific definition that will count - or should count - the most.
from The Race https://ift.tt/jNZ9idm
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