Yamaha has "quite a mountain to climb” with V4 MotoGP project

Yamaha Racing managing director Paolo Pavesio admits the factory has “quite a mountain to climb” with its new V4-powered MotoGP machine.

After making wild-card appearances alongside the Inline M1 last season, Yamaha’s new V4 is making a full-time MotoGP debut in 2026.

But the opening Buriram round highlighted the size of the task ahead.

The best Yamaha was just 16th in qualifying for Fabio Quartararo, while Jack Miller finished 15th in the Sprint and Quartararo 14th in the grand prix.

The V4 was around one second per lap off the leaders in Thailand, with the expected rear-grip gains yet to appear and engine performance still trailing rival manufacturers.

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However, Yamaha’s decision was also influenced by the future 2027 aerodynamic regulations, which favour a narrower machine for the new 850cc era.

“We are on a journey which we decided to start last year, anticipating a project based on a new engine and a completely new concept,” Pavesio said after the Thai Grand Prix, where he spoke to the media in place of Quartararo and Alex Rins.

“Now we see very clearly what the gap is, and we understand that we have quite a mountain to climb. But we are committed, as we were before when we took the decision, to make those steps, one after the other.

“Our riders gave 110%, the company is giving 110%, and we will keep doing so, and this is the only way. There will be no magic, one step after the other, one second after the other.

“We are determined to grow the project up to the moment we will be competitive again.”

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Pressed on the timescale needed to make the V4 competitive, Pavesio replied:

“It’s very difficult to give a number. It’s clear we are discovering things every time we go on track that we have to improve.

“We are still understanding, I would say, the base setting of the machine.

“Luckily, thanks to concessions, we can do much more [development] than the others. And that is why in this season we are going to see, learn, change and improve.

“So I expect this season to have a growing trajectory.”

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The Inline machine’s greatest 2025 strength, at least in the hands of Quartararo, was qualifying, where the Frenchman claimed five pole positions.

“We knew that we could have lost something in the beginning on the flying lap, where we could achieve a very good level last year,” Pavesio said.

“It’s something we were understanding to sacrifice, to give more consistency during the races.”

But while the V4’s Sprint race gap to victory was equal to last year, the deficit in the grand prix was significantly larger.

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“I would say [the Sprint] was not too bad. The gap from the first Yamaha to the winner was exactly the same as last year – at a start point for the project – but clearly in the long race, we have suffered a bit more,” Pavesio acknowledged.

Quartararo was 13.4s (seventh) from victory during the 2025 Thai Sprint, compared with a near-identical +13.5s (15th) for Miller on the V4 this year.

However, the Australian had crashed out of sixth place, just ahead of Quartararo, midway through the 2025 Sprint.

Miller returned to finish 22.3s (11th) behind last year’s GP winner Marc Marquez, which was 8.5s closer than Quartararo on the V4 and 25.5s nearer than Miller’s own V4 pace.

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Yamaha has “quite a mountain to climb” with V4 MotoGP project

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