Fabio Quartararo names date for his Yamaha V4 debut

Misano, in September. That’s when Fabio Quartararo expects to get his first ride on Yamaha’s new V4 prototype, currently being developed alongside the existing Inline machine.

The V4 was most recently on track at Brno last week, in the hands of factory test riders Augusto Fernandez and Andrea Dovizioso.

But it hasn’t yet been tried by any of Yamaha’s race riders, whose focus remains the Inline machine.

The first pictures of the bike leaked out from the Brno test, but so far no lap times have been revealed.

However, should all go to plan, Fernandez is expected to race the new machine as a wild-card in one of the end-of-season rounds, with Motegi long tipped as the likely venue.

But before that, Quartararo’s timeline suggests he will make his V4 debut - having ridden the Inline M1 for his entire premier-class career - during or around the Official Misano test on September 15.

“Of course, I will test it. I think around September, I think in the Misano test,” he said on Thursday at the German MotoGP.

“The comments are positive [so far], but until I test the bike, at the moment, it's just what the engineers are saying to me.

“Until you test the bike, you cannot really feel the potential of the bike.”

Quartararo arrives in Germany fresh from claiming his fourth pole position of the season at Assen.

However, after falling in the Sprint, he could only manage a tenth place in the grand prix, where he struggled to overtake after being forced off track by Fermin Aldeguer’s accident.

“I think that it’s super important to start from the front row or second row. But our main issue is more on the consistency, in the Sprint and the [Grand Prix] race,” said the Frenchman.

“Of course I will give my best to be fast in qualifying but we have to keep working really hard on the race pace, especially when we have to be consistent with the other manufacturers. That is where we struggle.”

Quartararo took his and Yamaha’s most recent MotoGP victory at the Sachsenring in 2022.