Exclusive: Yamaha’s V4 MotoGP bike seen for the first time!
July 3rd 2025
After months of waiting, we’ve managed to get the first photos of
Yamaha’s all-new MotoGP bike, designed to revive the factory’s
fortunes in MotoGP
Yamaha V4 bike testing in 2025
Augusto Fernandez in action on the Yamaha V4 yesterday
Author Mat Oxley
Yamaha’s long-awaited and all-new V4 MotoGP bike has finally broken
cover, during private tests at Brno in the Czech Republic.
The machine was ridden by Yamaha test rider Augusto Fernandez and
bears the usual trademark features of a V4 MotoGP bike: it’s narrower
at the front than the current YZR-M1 inline-four (because V4s are
narrower – two cylinders wide, not four cylinder wide) and the
two-into-one exhaust from the rear cylinder bank exits under the seat.
Most of the bike’s downforce aero devices borrow heavily from the
current M1’s aero spec, with wings, diffusers and ground-effect
bulges.
Yamaha hopes the bike will revive its fortunes in MotoGP, where V4s
make up for more than three quarters of the grid. V4s rule because
they make more power and their chassis dynamics make the bikes work
better in battle situations. The inline-four’s only advantage is in
corner speed, which it can use in qualifying, with no V4s getting in
the way, but not during races.
Yamaha had several V4s of differing specs at the test, which took
place on Tuesday and Wednesday at the newly resurfaced Brno circuit,
which next month will host its first MotoGP round since 2020.
Fernandez and newly-contracted Yamaha test rider Andrea Dovizioso rode
the bikes on Tuesday, then only Fernandez on Wednesday. Also present
on Tuesday were factory Yamaha rider Alex Rins and Pramac’s Miguel
Oliveira, who rode current M1s.
Rins was fastest at 1min 53.338sec, almost three seconds inside the
current lap record, with the fastest V4 lapping at 1min 56.6sec.
Because these are only shakedown tests, before Yamaha number-one Fabio
Quartararo gets to ride the bike for the first time, the lap times
don’t mean much.
The as-yet-unnamed new model isn’t an M1 with a new engine, it’s an
entirely new motorcycle, because V4s are packaged within the chassis
very differently, requiring a complete redesign.
Yamaha technical director Max Bartolini is in charge of the project,
which was announced a few months after he joined the Japanese brand at
the end of 2023 from Ducati, where he was Gigi Dall’Igna’s right-hand
man for a decade.
Therefore it’s more than likely that the new Yamaha is based closely
on Ducati’s all-powerful Desmosedici, winner of the last three MotoGP
riders’ championships and last five constructors’ titles. The
Desmosedici is so perfect for the current technical regulations and
tyre supplier that it would be mad to work in a different direction,
especially with new technical regulations on the way in 2027.
Honda was also at the test, perhaps testing important upgrades to its
RC213V, with Luca Marini riding for the first time since his huge
crash while testing the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race.
The big question now is will Yamaha’s V4 join the post-San Marino
group MotoGP tests on 15 September?
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