{"id":645002,"date":"2026-05-02T13:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T13:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/645002\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T13:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T13:48:08","slug":"yamaha-boss-admits-he-thought-v4-yamaha-motogp-project-would-be-slightly-easier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/645002\/","title":{"rendered":"Yamaha boss admits he thought V4 Yamaha MotoGP project \u201cwould be slightly easier\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yamaha MotoGP team boss Massimo Meregalli admits he thought development of the V4 project \u201cwould be slightly easier\u201d than it has been so far in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The Japanese manufacturer is in its first season in the modern era racing with a V4 engine instead of the inline-four it had used previously.<\/p>\n<p>It is hoped that, by falling in line with the rest of the grid, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/monster-energy-yamaha-motogp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Yamaha<\/a> can work its way back up the order with its V4 bike.<\/p>\n<p>However, the start to the year has been difficult, with Yamaha scoring just 14 points inside the opening four rounds compared to 42 at the same stage last season.<\/p>\n<p>The uncompetitive start to the campaign has also led <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/911998\/fabio-quartararo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fabio Quartararo<\/a> to sign for Honda, though Yamaha has bagged Jorge Martin and Ai Ogura for 2027.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>At the Spanish Grand Prix, where Yamaha was on the podium in 2025, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/news\/1093665\/1\/im-not-stupid-fabio-quartararos-patience-has-run-out-after-jerez-motogp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Quartararo fumed at the brand\u2019s lack of progress with the V4,<\/a> having finished 30 seconds off the lead.<\/p>\n<p>Yamaha facing \u2018unexpected\u2019 bumps in the road<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during the Jerez test on the Monday after the Spanish Grand Prix, Meregalli admitted Yamaha has faced unexpected challenges in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor sure, we were aware it was not going to be easy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have to say that I thought it would be slightly easier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, we are facing a path that maybe we didn\u2019t expect, which is slowing down a bit the process of the development.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut, the team itself is pushing as always, as much as we can.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd the atmosphere, I would say, is good. When there is something new, already this brings positivity and it\u2019s an additional boost.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are all aware, since we started this season, we thought &#8211; and we talked internally &#8211; that the first part was going to be demanding and tough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut we still believe in the second part we might start seeing different results.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, let\u2019s say we are just at the beginning, and so far we are where we thought we could be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yamaha MotoGP team boss Massimo Meregalli admits he thought development of the V4 project \u201cwould be slightly easier\u201d&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,10671,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-645002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-monster-energy-yamaha-motogp","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}