“Hard" Misano Sprint for Yamaha V4: “The numbers are not correct"

After a strong debut in Friday practice at Misano, Augusto Fernandez and the new Yamaha V4 prototype experienced a much tougher Saturday at the San Marino MotoGP.

Just 1.198s from the top on day one, Fernandez slipped 2.045s behind in final practice, then +1.678s for 22nd place in the V4’s first qualifying session.

The Sprint race then threw up a new issue in the form of “huge” rear chatter, a problem the other Inline Yamahas also suffered.

Fernandez brought the bike to its first MotoGP finish in 18th place, 27.893s behind race winner Marco Bezzecchi. Fernandez was 11 seconds behind the top Yamaha of Jack Miller (16th), after Fabio Quartararo crashed out of fourth.

“The numbers are not correct"

“It's a thin line,” Fernandez replied, when asked which bike he feels more comfortable on. “Now with the V4, sometimes we feel good and sometimes we feel bad, like today!

“We need to find the balance of the bike because [at the moment] if we make a small change, we are completely out.

“It's a completely new bike and the room is very very very open! So all the numbers that they have in mind from the Inline - it's not that they don't work - but they are not correct for our bike right now.

“So we need to be open-minded and look for other numbers, because today was a day of like discarding things… Today I was slower than yesterday. So we need to find something!”

Fernandez also confirmed what the top speed charts have shown all weekend, that the V4 is currently running well below its maximum engine performance.

The former Moto2 champion and KTM MotoGP racer set a best Sprint speed of 292.6km/h, compared with 300.8km/h for the fastest Inline M1 of Miguel Oliveira and 304.2km/h by Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia.

“The problem is with how we have the engine right now, it's hard to be close or to fight for something or arrive at the same speed and have the proper turbulences,” Fernandez said.

“Because you're arriving in another speed. And I realise that now in the race.

“We need to keep working, and hopefully tomorrow we can find something. Because today was a hard sprint, a long sprint, also because some vibrations appeared.

“Also the standard bike had some vibrations, so this is something to analyse well, because it's not the [V4] chassis, it's not the engine, it's something else that we are all having and we're all facing this problem.

“And the vibrations were huge, huge this race. So also it's the first time that I had this vibration with this bike.”

Soothing those vibrations, and finding more front feeling, are Fernandez’s main aims for Sunday.

“We are out of balance. As I said, we do a little change and we don't get the normal numbers. So we know the direction and well, it's not a secret, we are struggling on the front feeling,” he said.

“We have a good front feeling on the other [Inline] one. And Misano is a critical track for the front and that's why we are struggling.

“In Barcelona we didn't struggle that much, in Brno we didn't say that much. In Misano it’s a critical track for this, and if we find something here, I think it will be very, very positive.”

Fernandez and the V4 will make two further MotoGP wild-cards this season, at Sepang and Valencia. Some of the race riders will also try the bike at Monday's Misano test.