Yamaha V4 after one year: why the M1 is losing out on the straights

• Best result so far: fifth place for Fabio Quartararo in Barcelona, sixth at Le Mans over the full race distance.
• Top-end power is missing in fifth and sixth gear, but under acceleration the V4 outperforms the old inline four.
• The 2027 M1 is meant to regain the easy turn-in that the current version has lost.

For Yamaha, 2026 is a year of upheaval. After many years with the inline four, the YZR-M1 now runs a V4 engine, meaning an engine whose four cylinders are arranged in two banks forming a V. Because MotoGP engine capacity drops to 850 cc in 2027, Yamaha treated the current season as a test year from the outset, a chance to gain experience with the new concept. Everyone involved knew it would be no walk in the park. Team manager Massimo Meregalli speaks openly about the problems, and Paolo Pavesio, Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing, also drew up an initial assessment in September.

Why is the first V4 year so difficult for Yamaha?

Because Yamaha has practically started from scratch with the V4. Almost none of the data from the past can be used anymore, so every circuit is uncharted territory for the team.

“It was clear to us from the start that this would not be an easy year,” says Meregalli. “This bike is a completely blank sheet for us.” At first, the team had to understand how the bike even responds to changes. Many of its quirks only revealed themselves from race to race, and most of these were not pleasant discoveries but recurring problems. Meregalli also stresses, however, that nothing would have changed if Yamaha had started the project a year later. The situation would have been exactly the same.

Pavesio is even more direct. When Yamaha opted for the V4, it expected a certain range of performance. In his assessment, Yamaha sits rather at the lower end of that range. The main reason was reliability problems. Without a stable engine, you cannot extract performance. Yamaha now has reliability under control, so engine updates should follow. Everything still to come this season is already geared towards next year. Overall, it has been tougher than expected, Pavesio admits.

Why did Yamaha switch from an inline four to a V4 engine?

A key reason was aerodynamics. A V4 engine is narrower than an inline four, which leaves more room on the side fairing for aerodynamic parts.

Then there are the 2027 regulations. According to Pavesio, they define the permitted width of the aerodynamics, and for that reason alone Yamaha would have had to switch to a V engine sooner or later. The competition already has a great deal of experience with this layout. Introducing the V4 now was an unavoidable decision with 2027 in mind.

By Pavesio’s count, the old inline four worked very well for 18 years, but then struggled more and more. The other manufacturers had long since opted for a different layout, and the tyres were also designed for those bikes. Last year the M1 was very fast in qualifying but barely competitive in the race. It wore its tyres harder, lacked traction and struggled to put its power down.

The new engine has also fundamentally changed the chassis. According to Meregalli, the previous chassis was always one of the best in the field. However, the different engine shape drastically shifted the stiffness and the mounting position of the engine. Yamaha tried to calculate and simulate the behaviour in advance. Even so, there are still many areas the team does not fully understand. At the same time, Meregalli is convinced that the bike as a whole now works reasonably well.

Where is the Yamaha M1 with the V4 engine still losing time?

Above all on the straights. The biggest deficit is engine performance, more precisely top-end power in fifth and sixth gear.

“Unfortunately, we have one major construction site,” says Meregalli. “Engine performance is the area where we need to improve the most, because that is exactly where our biggest problems currently lie.” This makes life difficult for the riders. Because they lose time on the straights, they try to make it up on the brakes. In other words, they brake much later and harder than is good for the bike. This so-called over-braking makes everything even more complicated, and as a result turn-in also suffers compared with the competition.

There is progress too, though. When accelerating out of corners, the V4 is better than the inline four, most clearly at the exit of chicanes before long straights. Pavesio sees this as proof that the bike has fundamentally been developed along healthy lines.

“Oggi la moto accelera bene, per cui secondo noi è nata sana.”

Translated: “Today the bike accelerates well, so in our opinion it was born healthy.”

Both cite Aragon as an example. There, the Yamaha came out of the final sequence of corners onto the back straight well. Anyone wanting to overtake Jack Miller managed it somehow, according to Meregalli, but only at the very end of the straight. Pavesio describes this as frustrating. But he puts the blame on Yamaha itself, because it is the factory’s job to make its own engine faster. Yamaha knows the figures in fifth and sixth gear from the dyno.

Technical director Max Bartolini had warned of exactly this. Meregalli recalls his words at the start of the project: “Don’t expect switching from an inline four to a V4 to magically deliver the missing performance.” The overall package consists of far more than just the engine, says Meregalli. Yamaha understands the bike much better today than at the start of the season, but it is still in development. It is too early for a final verdict.

Where does Yamaha stand on electronics and aerodynamics?

In these two areas, Meregalli sees Yamaha on a par with the competition. Here the team has caught up significantly in recent years.

Max Bartolini joined Yamaha from Ducati at the end of 2023 and took on the role of technical director. Even with the inline four, one focus was on new electronics strategies. Meregalli sees no disadvantages there as a result of the switch to the V4. He hears hardly any complaints from the riders about the electronics. Yamaha has made real progress in this area and has also brought in engineers from other manufacturers.

Visually, however, the M1 looks much more restrained than the Aprilia, whose fairing looks as if it were shaped directly in the wind tunnel. Meregalli confirms this impression but points to small details on the Yamaha that are hard to spot from the outside. In the paddock, everyone knows the other manufacturers’ concepts well. Based on current knowledge, Yamaha is not doing badly at all by comparison.

What results has Yamaha achieved with the V4 engine so far?

The best result is fifth place for Fabio Quartararo in Barcelona, in a race with interruptions. Over a full race distance, sixth place at Le Mans was his best finish.

Meregalli calls the season tough, without beating around the bush. One reason also lies in the strength of the field. In the past, a gap of half a second to the front was still enough for a place among the top three or four. Today everyone is so close together that the task has become considerably harder. “That is not an excuse I like to fall back on, it is simply reality,” Meregalli makes clear.

What are Yamaha’s plans with the V4 engine for the 2027 MotoGP season?

Yamaha wants to feed the lessons of the learning year directly into the new 850 cc M1. The goal is to be fully competitive in 2028, with 2027 laying the foundation.

In September, Pavesio described the state of development. Up to that point, all manufacturers had been running interim bikes, for example with restricted 1000 cc engines or prototype power units. Yamaha was just beginning the first serious tests based on the 2027 machine, with the test team riding in Barcelona and at another circuit in Italy. Of the regular riders, only Toprak Razgatlioglu had tested the interim version by then: a 1000 cc bike with the 850 cc engine, without ride-height adjustment and with reduced aerodynamics. He tried out two engine configurations to find out which one has the better character, as the engine also influences how the chassis behaves in corners. According to Pavesio, Toprak found positive signs, and Yamaha has already chosen a direction.

One point is particularly important for Yamaha. According to the riders, the 2026 M1 has lost its traditional strength: easy turn-in. With the 2027 model, Yamaha seems to have found this behaviour again, in Pavesio’s words. A major unknown for all manufacturers remains the new tyres from Pirelli. Pavesio also stresses that without the V4 already running, Yamaha would not even have been able to ride such an interim bike. Internally, the team had expected a difficult start, but also an improvement.

Yamaha is also reorganising its rider line-up. Jorge Martin and Ai Ogura will ride for the factory team in 2027, while in the Pramac satellite team rookie Izan Guevara gets his chance alongside Toprak Razgatlioglu. With the 850 cc era, a new phase is beginning for Yamaha on the rider side as well.

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