Fabio Quartararo revealed Yamaha was still “missing quite a lot” from its intended V4 package ahead of the engine’s 2026 MotoGP debut.
Yamaha confirmed it would be making the switch from the Inline-4 engine to the V4 for 2026, in an attempt to catch up with its MotoGP rivals, and introduced the official package at the post-season Valencia test.
The 2021 World Champion set the fastest time of Yamaha’s riders in testing with a 1:29.927, which saw him end the day’s running in 15th and 0.554s off test leader Raul Fernandez.
Quartararo admitted that he worked on finding the “basic set-up” of the bike to find stability, but stressed it was important that Yamaha’s behind-closed-doors test the day after the Valencia test went better.
“We worked a lot on the bike’s set-up, trying to find the basis, because we don’t have it yet,” Quartararo said via Autosport.
“In a nutshell, we had a very good front end [with the inline-4 bike]. Today, we don’t have that. That’s why I say we need to find the basic set-up, then we know that power is a fairly clear issue.
“We expected the grip to be a little better, but for me, the most important thing is that we still have another day of testing tomorrow, and we need to give the engineers exactly the right directions to find a solution.”
“We were riding practically the same bike [as in Misano]. I’m not going to say it’s a step forward,” he said. “Tomorrow will be important. We have new things to try, like aerodynamics. So it will be important to see how that turns out.”
Fabio Quartararo: ‘I’m more neutral’ on Yamaha V4 engine than in Misano
The Valencia test marked the first time since Misano that Quartararo had tried the V4 package.
Quartararo had been negative about the new engine at the Misano test, despite other riders offering a more mixed reaction.
When told he sounded more positive about the bike than in the past, Quartararo replied: “I’m more neutral. There’s no point in saying too much.
“We need to give the engineers some direction on where to take things forward. For example, today, the front end was clearly something we were lacking.
“The bike wasn’t turning enough, we lacked power, and the grip was quite different. We’re missing quite a lot.
“But it will be interesting to give the engineers some clear data tomorrow. From my side and from my team-mates’ side.”
Alex Rins, Quartararo’s team-mate, suggested that he felt Yamaha had “slightly” improved compared to the Misano test.
Rins also suggested that there had been no big changes to the V4 package, but that they had managed to make certain areas work much better.
“The bike, slightly, has improved,” Rins said after the test.
“They didn’t change anything in terms of gearbox or big, big items but I felt better than in Misano.
“The shift shock that we were struggling quite a bit with, especially in this track, was working better.
“We didn’t make so many laps for the conditions, but the laps that we did were like proper laps in terms of feelings.
“We did a lot of settings, we went with the pivot up, pivot down, bike short, bike long.
“But overall, I felt quite good so yeah, good starting point.”
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