Yamaha’s early V4 wild-card "good news", "I hope he finishes in front of us!”

Alex Rins has confirmed that Yamaha brought forward the planned wild-card debut of its new V4 prototype from Motegi to this weekend’s Misano MotoGP round.

Until now, the V4 has been confined to private tests, with no official lap times released.

That will change this weekend, when the bike goes head-to-head against the full-time Yamaha riders, on the current Inline M1, plus rival V4 machinery from Ducati, Aprilia, KTM and Honda.

“I hope he finishes in front of us!” Rins told MotoGP.com, when quizzed about Fernandez’s V4 debut. “This would be a really positive thing.

“Everyone is going to have an eye on him. So let's see how the weekend goes.”

Rins added that Yamaha’s decision to give the bike an 'early' debut was itself a positive sign.

“We’ve had some feedback from [Augusto]. He's quite happy with the bike,” Rins said.

“Still it’s quite ‘fresh’ [new], let's say.

“But they were supposed to wild-card the V4 in Japan, so they anticipate [brought it forwards]. 

"And when these kinds of things are anticipated, it's always good news.”

Quartararo: “Really important to follow one direction”

Rins and team-mate Fabio Quartararo got their first taste of the M1 during a rain-interrupted test at Barcelona on Monday.

“I'm really looking forward to seeing it on track with especially all the other riders,” Quartararo said of this weekend’s race debut.

“It will be important to see which position it is in, and especially what his feeling is on a different track than Barcelona.”

Officially, Yamaha is keeping both the Inline and V4 options open for 2026, but Quartararo admitted:

“I think it’s pretty clear... I mean, it's really important for them to follow one direction, and I think that they are on it and they are working a lot,” he said.

Quartararo, and other race riders, are due to ride the V4 at Monday’s official Misano test.

Misano focus "not on performance benchmarks"

Meanwhile, Yamaha's MotoGP technical director Max Bartolini played down performance expectations for Misano. 

"Our team has designed a coherent package: power delivery, chassis balance, and aerodynamics tuned as a system," he said. 

"This weekend's focus is not on performance benchmarks, but on operational learning under real-world MotoGP Grand Prix conditions.

"Our key objectives are to validate core assumptions, gather high-quality data, and inform the next phase of iteration. 

"While the long-term ambition remains a competitive V4 platform for the 2026 season, any final commitment will be based on an evaluation of outcomes at the end of the 2025 programme.

"This initiative is a strategic approach to broaden our technical options and accelerate our learning curve to ensure we make the most informed decision for our future in MotoGP racing."