Rumours suggest Yamaha may go back on their word and ditch the V4 until 2027

Yamaha’s torrid start to the 2026 MotoGP season has led to speculation about whether they will continue with the V4 engine.

The Iwata outfit moved from an inline-four to a V4, which all other manufacturers had been running, in 2026, with the project being tested at some races in 2025. Fabio Quartararo pushed to speed up the V4’s development as he expressed frustration at Yamaha’s lack of success.

Naturally, that success was not expected immediately, as Yamaha admit they are ’15 years behind’ with the V4. However, their riders would not have expected to be so far off the pace at the Thailand Grand Prix.

Pre-season testing was miserable for the factory Yamaha and Pramac riders as they combatted major engine problems and general underperformance. This carried over into the season opener, where the fastest Yamaha, Quartararo, was 30 seconds behind the winner.

‘Rumours’ are suggesting that Yamaha will ditch the V4 until 2027

The Frenchman was P14 in Thailand, with teammate Alex Rins behind in 15th, 32 seconds off race winner Marco Bezzecchi. Pramac’s Toprak Razgatloglu and Jack Miller were 17th and 18th, the latter being a staggering 47 seconds behind.

After the race, Yamaha boss Paolo Pavesio was called to do the media debriefs, with the team implementing a media blackout for the riders. He admitted, as per MOW, that they had a ’30-second mountain to climb’.

While this is commendable, the decision to have the riders not speak to the media was criticised, as they likely would have said nothing different to what Pavesio came out with. However, as MOW notes, the ‘press blackout’ raises suspicions about something deeper.

There are ‘rumours’ of a request to go back to the inline four and hold the V4 project back until 2027. The report notes that this request was ‘not so subtly advanced by Fabio Quartararo’, who has openly criticised the V4 and its current lack of performance.

Quartararo’s comments have not sat well with Yamaha, as the 26-year-old was seen showing his middle finger to the bike in pre-season. However, with its current state after Thailand, it begs the question of whether the team should actually go back to the old machine.

READ MORE: Everything to know about Yamaha from the MotoGP team’s riders to hierarchy

Paolo Pavesio has emphatically ruled out going back to ‘last year’s bike’

This has been a topic of discussion since pre-season testing. But while the V4 does not look competitive right now, Yamaha have shown no signs of wanting to go backwards.

Pavesio ruled out going back to the inline four during testing. Speaking to the media after the Thailand GP, he did not ‘seem to even consider’ that possibility.

“We know that if we hadn’t tried, we wouldn’t have been ready in 2027,” he said. “That doesn’t mean 2026 will be a year of development, but we accept the fact that we are where we are today.

“We know that we will learn with every race and that we will have to be able to put all the pieces together.”