Why Yamaha was disappointing in 2026 MotoGP rider market

After stringing along Miguel Oliveira, Jack Miller and half the Moto2 grid for months, Yamaha is set to announce that Miller will retain his ride alongside Toprak Razgatlioglu in Pramac’s MotoGP line-up.

As with any decision of this nature, opinions will be divided, and only time will tell whether it was the right call.

For some, retaining the Australian makes sense at this stage of Yamaha’s project: his experience could help extract the maximum potential from the V4 engine, which is intended to restore the punch lost in recent years and bring the brand back into the fight for wins — and eventually, perhaps, championships.

Others will argue that giving Miller a new deal contradicts the spirit of what was initially conceived as a ‘junior team’, designed to give younger talent a chance to shine upon entering the premier class.

Without taking sides in a debate that is inherently subjective, one thing is clear: the process Yamaha followed in choosing its final 2026 rider could have been handled far better.

Miller will extend his MotoGP career for another year, which had been his main goal all along.

Still, judging from his media comments last Thursday in Hungary when still waiting for Yamaha’s verdict, one might assume he doesn’t feel entirely at ease with staying at Pramac. “I’ve been patient enough with Yamaha,” he insisted. “If you want me, you want me. If you don’t, you don’t. Time is passing and I feel like Yamaha doesn’t want me, especially with so many names being thrown around as candidates.”

Just hours later, Miller was seen entering Yamaha’s motorhome with his manager Aki Ajo in the Balaton Park paddock. Asked about the meeting, Yamaha executives explained that Miller “came to apologise for his words to the press”. A curious response, considering the frustration of the popular Aussie seemed understandable; his comments, though blunt, were far from offensive. Moreover, why apologise if he was on the verge of switching to World Superbike, as he himself had hinted?

After several conversations with sources close to the matter, Autosport understood that Miller was set to keep his seat for 2026, as reported last Sunday. Publicly, the Australian will likely put on his best smile, but privately he will likely feel like a plan B.

Miguel Oliveira, his current team-mate, is even less satisfied as he continues to wait for an official response – at least that’s what his camp maintains. His case is particularly harsh given that his Yamaha deal initially ran until 2026 but included a performance-related clause: if Oliveira was the lowest-ranked Yamaha rider in the standings before the summer break, then the manufacturer was allowed to drop him at the end of 2025. That is precisely what is happening, partly due to the four rounds the Portuguese rider missed through injury.

It was also no secret that Yamaha was pursuing Diogo Moreira and flirting with Manuel Gonzalez. Before the summer break, Moreira was the frontrunner to join Razgatlioglu at Pramac, forming an all-rookie pairing. His collaboration with Yamaha Brazil, which supplies him with training bikes, seemed the perfect bridge for the factory to recruit one of Moto2’s most coveted names.

Diogo Moreira, Italtrans Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Fighting for the title with Gonzalez and Aron Canet – sitting 31 points behind the former and six behind the latter – Moreira was waiting for a decision from Iwata. Instead, Honda swooped in with a bold push, convincing him to join its ranks.

Though nothing had been signed when he arrived at Balaton, Moreira had already decided to join HRC, which offered him a three-year deal, including a first season of adaptation to heavier bikes – at the LCR team, but with factory status.

On Monday after the Hungarian GP, Yamaha director Paolo Pavesio confirmed that Augusto Fernandez would race at Misano – two rounds from now – on the highly debated new V4 engine, before it had even run in public. The move was unusual for the typically secretive manufacturer.

The announcement was meant to be a statement of intent for the huge effort being invested in the project, in both Japan and Italy. And rightly so: Yamaha’s future – and its ability to retain Fabio Quartararo – could depend on the engine’s performance.

Miller, Oliveira, Moreira and Gonzalez — whom Yamaha continues to eye for 2027 — may be upset. But losing Quartararo would be another matter entirely.