Yamaha targeting MotoGP V4 wildcard “as soon as the bike is ready”

Yamaha’s MotoGP V4 will be raced in a wildcard entry this year if the Japanese factory achieves its targets with the new engine project, according to Yamaha Motor Racing Managing Director Paolo Pavesio.

The Iwata-based marque conducted its first test with its V4 engine at a recent test at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia where it was ridden by Augusto Fernandez, who said ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix that the engine will be back on-track in a test in May.

The Spanish rider, who joined Yamaha as a test rider over the winter and who has been filling in for the injured Miguel Oliveira at the Pramac Yamaha team since the Grand Prix of the Americas, could also be wildcarding on the V4 later this year is Yamaha meets its targets for the new engine.

“The target is to make the [V4] bike as good as possible and, as soon as the bike [is] ready, to challenge ourselves in a wildcard,” said Paolo Pavesio, speaking to MotoGP.com during the MotoGP Practice session on Friday afternoon at the Spanish Grand Prix.

“So, this was already the plan in the beginning of the year, we are following the process.

“It’s always a complicated process because we are developing a full-new bike with a configuration which is not common to us, at least, but here we are; we keep working on the two parallel projects.

“On Monday we will test new things on the M1, we are still committed to being as competitive as possible this season, but we have an eye to the future, also.”

When asked by MotoGP.com pitlane reporter Jack Appleyard if the engine could appear at a race this year in a wildcard, Pavesio confirmed that it is Yamaha’s objective.

“This I can say is our target,” he said.

“If we will be able to achieve the target we will see, but we want to be ready for a wildcard, so we want to be ready with Augusto [Fernandez] being on-track really benchmarking our V4 because if the new bike will be good enough and faster than the current bike there is the possibility to race with it next year.”

On Thursday, ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, Monster Energy Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo said that the V4 is the direction he would like Yamaha to go in for the 2026 season.

Pavesio neither confirmed nor denied that this would be the case, but he reaffirmed that the V4 will become Yamaha’s MotoGP engine only when it’s more competitive than the current inline-four package.

“I don’t know yet,” he said. “Of course, we are doing this for a purpose.

“First of all, we are learning this new configuration for the future. But as soon as the bike will be competitive we have all the interest to put it on-track.

“If this internal competition will go in favour of the V4, the factory riders will race with it next year, but only if [the V4 out-performs the inline-four] – as I think also Max Bartolini explained.

“This is a very complicated, exciting, and challenging project to run in parallel within the same manufacturer because [...] we are racing a season with 22 races; this is only race number five, so we have a lot of expectations and the capability to grow this season and all we will do this season is based on the current M1. But still, in parallel, there is a second project.”