Yamaha’s dramatic swap to a V4 engine configuration in MotoGP might occur a lot before initially anticipated based mostly on riders’ latest hints – however the scale of the change should not be underestimated.
It’s at present the final group on the MotoGP grid utilizing an inline-four engine, however that would change as quickly as subsequent season’s summer season break because it bids to chop the hole to its V4-powered rivals.
Regardless of having many years of expertise with its present powertrain, Yamaha has additionally been experimenting with the V4 various utilized by all the opposite MotoGP producers for fairly a while behind the scenes. It is believed to be a change that recently-arrived engine guru Luca Marmorini has been eager on.
Official acknowledgement that the change was coming lastly got here final month, however the timeline on when the brand new bike will seem on the MotoGP grid was left unclear, with group boss Lin Jarvis solely saying it might race ‘when it’s sooner’ than the present iteration.
However manufacturing facility racer Alex Rins clearly has an concept of when he wish to see it in motion for the primary time.
“We aren’t going to have the V4 for the final races [of 2024],” he mentioned, “however fortunately if every little thing goes nicely then in the midst of the season subsequent yr we will have it.”
Swapping to a V4 is a course of sped up by Suzuki’s resolution to stroll away from the championship after 2022, leaving Yamaha as the one producer nonetheless utilizing the inline-four.
The inline-four is smoother in its energy supply and higher suited to Yamaha’s conventional excessive nook pace, however it comes at the price of each high finish pace and acceleration.
In an period the place journey top units and aerodynamics imply that robust nook exits are essential, it seems Yamaha has been left with no different alternative than to observe the lead of the sequence’ different factories.
That course of has seemingly been aided by MotoGP’s transfer to manage electronics and a single tyre producer, which suggests all the V4-powered groups have the identical consultant information on the tyre finish electronics fronts to drive engine growth, whereas Yamaha having a special engine leaves it much more of an outlier when so many different components of the bike packages are equal.
Nonetheless, it’s not simply as easy a course of as bringing a brand new engine spec, one thing solely concession producers Honda and Yamaha are at present allowed to do mid-season because of the sequence’ engine homologation guidelines and looming 2026 growth freeze forward of a big new rulebook arriving in 2027.
As an alternative, the transition to V4 will take an entire new bike, as a result of the a lot narrower however longer form of the engine – set to go from being 4 cylinders broad to 2 – would require an entire new body and aerodynamics bundle to comprise it.
The overwhelming majority of present Yamaha pair Rins and Fabio Quartararo’s MotoGP expertise is with inline-four engines, bar Rins’s temporary and injury-wrecked LCR Honda stint final season.
However there’s one different particular person within the line-up (at the least briefly) who says that the engine swap ought to deliver some much-needed assist.
At the moment a stand-in take a look at rider and wildcard in addition to a Yamaha World Superbike racer, former KTM MotoGP racer Remy Gardner has expertise with KTM’s V4 and might’t assist however really feel Yamaha will make progress by dropping the inline-four.
“If I evaluate the 2 engines, the KTM was extra linear,” he replied when requested by The Race in regards to the two configurations.
“Despite the fact that I felt prefer it was nonetheless fairly an aggressive engine, it felt extra linear. I don’t know if that was electronics or simply the character, however it was simpler to journey. I had it in my hand a bit extra.
“On the minute, we’re struggling a bit with that [at Yamaha]. It’s both an excessive amount of, or not sufficient. The electronics are having a tough time controlling it.
“[Changing to a V4] might deliver some positives to the undertaking.”
The technically-minded Gardner additionally believes that whereas perhaps everybody else having V4s is not actively hampering Yamaha, altering might give the electronics engineers a better time.
“I don’t assume the electronics work in a vastly totally different manner though it’s a V4,” he defined.
“However perhaps they should work slightly bit much less.
“Electronics can solely work so quick, and issues are occurring even faster than that mechanically that it will possibly’t sustain with.
“The electronics are on the restrict and provides that uninteresting feeling that you just don’t like on the throttle.”
