Yamaha's star rider Fabio Quartararo wants the manufacturer to conclusively pivot to a V4-engined bike starting in 2026 - and sounds convinced this is what will happen.
The current Yamaha M1 is - following Suzuki's withdrawal at the end of 2022 - the only bike on the MotoGP grid carrying an inline-four engine rather than a V4 unit.
Quartararo won the riders' title in 2021, but has been generally frustrated by the incremental nature of development on the V4 in his time in the factory Yamaha team - and has long wanted his employer to take big swings.
Yamaha's V4 prototype is now undergoing track testing increasingly out in the open - most recently in Valencia in the hands of new tester Augusto Fernandez.
"Still we are in the early-early development. At the moment we still haven't had the possibility to compare correctly the performance," said Yamaha tech chief Max Bartolini.
"Next year's is going to have the V4 engine if the V4 engine with the V4 bike is faster than the actual [inline-four] bike."
But Quartararo - who is a prized Yamaha asset and, like nearly every other rider, is out of contract at the end of 2026 - will undoubtedly have some sway in the blueprint Yamaha chooses for the future.
And his preference is clear.
"I mean, in 2027 I don't know where I will be," he reiterated when asked about what engine configuration Yamaha should go with for the next ruleset debuting in 2027 and featuring 850cc engines.
"Clearly from already next year for me the way is the V4.
"We are riding completely different to the others. There's five manufacturers, four are with the V4. I mean, if it was two-three or three-two, maybe... but it's clear we have to go with the V4.
"How it's affecting us, clearly we have to go with the V4. And hopefully, like I said, for my future it will be very important to see how the bike is for next year."
And Quartararo believes the V4/inline-four question is not just a matter of pure laptime, but of how laptime can be accessed in race trim - namely when fighting other bikes.
An inline-four is reputed as being by default smoother but slightly less competitive on straights than a V4, though some of the units that have run in MotoGP in recent years - like Honda's sweet-but-underpowered current V4, Aprilia's lineage of V4s or Suzuki's deceptively potent last inline-four engine in 2022 - have bucked that convention.
Quartararo, though, has long been frustrated by feeling the Yamaha M1 does not give him the chance to fight against rival bikes. He has frequently emphasised that he cannot battle the likes of the Ducati Desmosedici or the KTM RC16 on the straights.
"It's to go fast but also being able to go fast in the race, and also to fight with the others. Riding alone, we know in the past we were all very fast.
"[But] I never really won a race fighting. Most of the races [I won] was alone, and trying to pull away. But in the fight we are the worst, let's say."
The V4 state of play
Quartararo told media "I don't know what I can say" regarding the recent V4 testing - and was jokingly told by Yamaha PR that he could say "nothing" - but he did then divulge some information.
“It's not the first test that they made with the V4, but of course now we're in a process where it's not about performance. It's about seeing that everything is working - they are checking a lot - and what I can say is it was a few laps, it was not a full day of testing.
"So, to give feedback around a few laps in two days I think it's too early. That's why first of all I don't want to say anything - maybe I say one thing and it's totally opposite. So... the bike made laps. At the moment. It's going.”
Quartararo said he hasn't seen the bike in person. “To be honest I don't care to see the bike. It can be pink or whatever - I just want it to go fast. I haven't even seen pictures [from testing].”
Fernandez - speaking to the media at Jerez as the injury stand-in for Miguel Oliveira at Pramac - shared some more information.
“I wasn’t even pushing - I didn’t want to be the first rider ever to crash a Yamaha V4!" he quipped. "It would’ve been a historical moment and not for a good reason. I’d have been in the books.”
Fernandez also stressed that the bike is "not even close" to what it's going to be, and that the chassis currently housing the V4 is just a barebones one that hasn't yet been really worked on.
Asked whether he had any idea when he himself might get to test it - which is allowed whenever as Yamaha is a 'Rank D' concession manufacturer - Quartararo said: "No… … … Well, yes." He then said he couldn't be specific, but pointed out next year's bikes are usually tested "around August-September".
“I think this will be more or less the time that I will test the bike.”
For now, Quartararo's testing programme - "very busy from now to Assen [at the end of June]" - will remain focused on the current inline-four, but he expects that focus to shift.
And he also believes Yamaha should use its allocation of wildcards, of which it can have six during the season, to give the V4 its competitive debut.
"It’s always much more interesting to test something in a race weekend than in a test," he pointed out, adding: "Hopefully they will bring the V4 in the wildcards."
Fernandez indicated the project was simply not mature enough for that to be the case at Jerez already. "Not now - it won’t be good, it won’t be nice, I’ll be slower than the normal bike. As I said, it’s just an engine. And not even at its full. We still have to make the chassis and everything.”
But he confirmed he felt the same as Quartararo - and hoped to be wildcarding a V4 later in the year. He also acknowledged that, despite the official rhetoric from Yamaha, his impression is that the V4 is the chosen path forward.
Fernandez did insist that, despite it being reported otherwise, Yamaha has not yet come anywhere near testing its 2027 850cc engine. But with every indication that the V4 is Yamaha's future for 2026, it would be a massive surprise if it wasn't a precursor to starting the new era with a V4, too.
