Quartararo feeling pessimistic about new Yamaha V4 MotoGP bike

Fabio Quartararo says Yamaha’s V4-powered M1 won’t solve all its troubles in MotoGP after admitting that he feels “worse” on the new bike than its predecessor.

The 2021 world champion made the comment after finishing 17th in the morning test session in Misano, just over a second off the pace of Gresini’s Alex Marquez.

This was Quartararo’s second outing on the new V4 bike Yamaha is preparing for the 2026 season, following a private test in Barcelona a week ago.

But while he still took some positives from the Barcelona running, Quartararo admitted that he struggled to find any strong points on Yamaha’s new challenger at the halfway point of the Misano test.

“At the moment, it’s worse,” the Frenchman said when asked how it feels compared to the inline-four variant. “In Barcelona, we felt some difference, that for me was in a better way. Here, we haven’t found it yet.

“At the moment, I don’t see any improvement in the area we really need to make [to make an improvement]. But, like the team said, there is still a margin, theoretically.”

Asked about Yamaha assuring him that there is a lot to come from the new M1, Quartararo said: “I will not answer [questions about] the potential.”

In the last few years, Yamaha had come to the conclusion that it had reached the ceiling of its inline four-cylinder engine, prompting it to press ahead with the development of a completely new bike that incorporates a V4 motor.

However, Quartararo remains unconvinced that switching the engine alone will turn around Yamaha’s fortunes in MotoGP.

“I don’t think that the V4 engine will resolve all our problems because we still find the same problems in Barcelona and here,” he said.

“In Barcelona, it was a bit better, but in Barcelona the track is really smooth. There are not so many corners straight away [close to each other], like here, Turns 1, 2, 3, and 11, 12, 13. There, it’s much more one corner after another. So you have a lot of time between them. But then the bike is super aggressive and still has a job [to do].”

Yamaha’s test rider Augusto Fernandez highlighted issues with the front-end of the M1 after debuting the V4 version of the bike at the San Marino Grand Prix last weekend.

When Fernandez’s remarks were put to him, Quartararo said: “It’s not really a matter of front feeling, it’s a matter of turning. 

“Of course, the feeling of the inline-four is really good. It’s the strongest point of the bike, but it’s the only one [good thing] that we have. 

“This one [V4] is maybe a bit worse right now, but we don’t find any other really positive. So this is what we are going to try, and try to figure out what is possible.”