The news was first reported by Motorsport.com on September 10, immediately after the first Misano Grand Prix, after confirmation from a Yamaha source, but on Thursday, ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, it was confirmed by Lin Jarvis himself, who will be in charge of the team until the end of the season.
This is no small matter, given that throughout the MotoGP era Yamaha has always raced with an inline-four engine configuration and, after Suzuki’s abandonment two years ago, the Iwata team remains the only one not to have yet embraced the V-four variant, as Ducati, KTM, Aprilia and Honda have done.
“The information about the development of the V4 engine, which we read recently, is true,” confirmed Jarvis.
“I can confirm that we are committed to the development of this engine. It is something that goes back a long time. When Suzuki was there, there were two of us racing with inline-four engines, but now we are the only ones. In our opinion, there is still room for development, but when you see that all the rivals are racing with another configuration and that the 2027 regulation change is on the horizon, it is important to understand the difference in potential between the V4 and the inline-four.”
When Dorna proposed an engine freeze in 2025 and 2026, in view of the transition from 1000cc to 850cc engines in 2027, Yamaha strenuously opposed it, as its top secret folder included this project, which however will not be touched as the concessions for the Japanese brands will be maintained.
“The project is on schedule. The engines have already been tested on the bench, not yet on the bike. Our intention is to gain experience and I don’t know when you will see it running, but probably by the middle of next year we will see it on the track,” said the British rider.
Lin Jarvis, Yamaha Factory Racing, Herve Poncharal, Red Bull GASGAS Tech3
Photo by: Marc Fleury
Quartararo highlights new way of working
Fabio Quartararo, the spearhead of Yamaha’s MotoGP project, also confirmed the information in the pre-race press conference. “I have no idea when it will be ready. But we have known for a long time that Yamaha is working on a V4 engine,” he admitted.
“They’ve been trying to move the project forward for a while. We have new people, new protocols, but this mentality doesn’t change in a few months. We’re finding a way to work, but we’re three or four years behind the European brands,” he warned.
Two years ago, Yamaha hired Luca Marmorini as a consultant, a highly experienced engineer who previously worked in F1 with Ferrari and Toyota.
Having worked in single-seaters, the Italian has been instrumental in optimising the performance and increasing the reliability of the Aprilia engine. Marmorini had already warned, after signing with Yamaha (2022), of the need to consider the idea of abandoning the inline-four nature of the engine to move to the V-twin configuration, the majority option on the starting grid.
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