The official unveiling of Yamaha’s new V4-powered M1 ahead of test rider Augusto Fernandez’s debut wildcard at the San Marino Grand Prix marks a historic shift in the firm’s MotoGP direction.
But that doesn’t mean Fabio Quartararo and his fellow regular Yamaha race riders will actually get to ride it in a grand prix in 2025.
That’s because, while Yamaha like Honda currently enjoys the full extent of MotoGP’s concession perks, the steps it’s already made to improve the current inline four bike so far this season mean it’s excluded from bringing the additional bike updates that are necessary to deploy the V4 in full race spec without facing substantial penalties for breaking the series’ technical rules.
In theory, Yamaha’s concession status does allow it to bring a new engine specification, given that, unlike factories with fewer concessions, it’s not forced to homologate a design at the start of the season and then stick to it for the whole season.
It can instead bring new modifications whenever it wants as long as it stays within its expanded allowance of nine per season, and as all four of Yamaha’s racers have used seven engines each so far there is room to make a change room.
However, it’s not engines that in the end will prevent Yamaha from racing the new V4 outside Fernandez’s wildcards this year. It’s a twofold restriction on two other key parts of the whole package.
One of those is the bike’s gearbox. Gear ratios must be declared before the start of the season, even though teams are allowed to modify the specific components of the box as the season progresses, so Yamaha’s race riders are stuck with the inline-four engine’s ratios.
According to item 2.4.3.9 of the MotoGP rulebook, “teams will be required to declare all the gearbox ratios chosen for each gearbox speed before the first race of the season, and only these declared ratios may be used during the entire season.
“Any ratios not declared before the first race of the season may not be used during that season.”
Another issue is the restrictions on bringing new aerodynamic components. One of the key motives behind Yamaha moving from inline four to V4 - apart from the search for more top end power - is to fully exploit MotoGP’s new for 2027 rulebook that decreases the width of the bikes - and as a consequence benefits the substantially narrower V4 configuration.
That means a different look for the next generation of bike, one substantially removed from Yamaha’s current machine - but, with both its front fairing homologations already used this season to bring upgrades to the current bike, it’s unable to put that new look on its race riders’ bikes - much to the regret of technical boss Massimo Bartolini.
“The question is that we don’t have homologation remaining about gearbox and fairing,” he explained to journalists, “so we cannot in any case make it, just to be clear. The engine itself is not a problem, but as you know you have to homologate more.
“We should have started at the beginning of the season with a different approach, but we decided not to do it.”
As a result, although the race team will run the V4 in Monday’s test at Misano, we won’t actually see them race it until the opening round of 2026 - even if the decision to run the bike hasn’t yet been formally made according to overall project boss Paolo Pavesio.
“I think we are coming close to our target,” he said, “but before we make our decision what we need is exactly what we will start tomorrow: we need to put the bike under the stress of a race weekend to assess each component and to explore its potential.
“As soon as we can, we will take our final decision with a very clear target, which is to have a more competitive machine on track next season.”
