Fabio Quartararo fears Yamaha V4 is “super far”

Fabio Quartararo was already on his way back to Europe when Yamaha’s Sepang MotoGP test was interrupted by a technical issue that kept its garage doors closed throughout day two.

The only positive was that the Frenchman had completed two days of running on the new V4 at the Shakedown, plus day one of the official test, when he suffered the broken finger injury.

But the bad news was Quartararo’s bleak assessment of the new bike's competitiveness. 

Even before the technical issue that sidelined the M1s, the 2021 world champion felt the latest version of the V4 was “super far” from its rivals.

Quartararo ended the opening day of the official test ninth fastest, 0.851s behind Ducati’s reigning world champion Marc Marquez. The next best Yamaha was Jack Miller in 14th.

“Of course, I cannot say I’m confident because we see how much we suffer, we see that our lap times are not very good,” Quartararo said before leaving Sepang.

“But the only thing I can do is do my best, try to ride at my maximum and whatever the position is, try to make the best I can.”

"We know that we are super far"

The Frenchman has spent his entire MotoGP career on an Inline4 Yamaha, but denied he needs more time to adapt to the V4 character.

“Yes, completely [adapted to the V4 style]. I felt straight away where I needed to change, where I needed to adapt in a different way. But I think also our V4 is not completely as the others,” he said, before reeling off a list of technical shortcomings.

“There is still work to do, especially on the turning, on the traction, on the electronics, on the grip, on the power. So there are many things to adjust.”

Quartararo conceded that he hadn’t had enough track time to understand where the Yamaha V4 stands against its rivals, “because I did not enough laps".

Nonetheless, "We see also how fast they are doing just in the first day. I mean in just one day, we saw the lap times, and it’s unbelievable fast.

“So we know where we are, we know that we are super far, but we have to accept it and working hard is the only thing that we can do.”

Quartararo, reported to have already decided to join Honda for 2027, will make his return to the V4 at the Buriram test from February 21-22.

Meanwhile, Yamaha resumed testing on day three at Sepang, when Alex Rins finished as the fastest M1 rider, in 14th place and 1.178s behind Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) on the combined timesheets.

Where might Quartararo have finished the Sepang test?

If Quartararo's half-second advantage over Rins on day one of the 2026 test continued until the final day, the Frenchman would have been classified eighth and around +0.7s from Alex Marquez.

That kind of pace would have put Quartararo 0.5s behind the best Aprilia lap of Marco Bezzecchi, 0.2s behind the top Honda of Joan Mir, but a fraction ahead of the top KTM time by Pedro Acosta.

Rins’ best lap of 1m 57.580s was 0.8s slower than Quartararo’s 1m 56.724s at the same test the previous year on the final version of the Inline4 machine.

*Only took part in Day 1.

Alex Marquez almost exactly matched his own pace-setting Ducati time at the 2025 Sepang test, while Aprilia/Marco Bezzecchi made the biggest time attack step:

*Inline4 in 2025, V4 in 2026.

A breakdown of Quartararo's best V4 Sepang lap time, while riding with the broken finger, backs up his opinion about losing time in many areas.

Quartararo began his best lap with an impressive opening sector, the 4th fastest of the day, just 0.062s behind the best by Marc Marquez. But he then slipped to 11th (+0.279s) in Sector 2, 8th (+0.316s) in Sector 3 and 11th (+0.279s) again in Sector 4.

The fact that Quartararo lost as much time in Sectors 2 and 3 as he did on the long straights that dominate Sector 4, shows it's not only engine power that's lacking.

Yamahas have rarely been the fastest MotoGP bikes, but the V4 clearly needs more outright performance, with Quartararo 11.7km/h slower than Enea Bastianini's KTM on day one. 

Interestingly, Quartararo hit the same 333.3km/h maximum for all five of his best top speeds, suggesting it was rev-limited. Normally, a rider's top speed varies slightly due to factors such as slipstreams, corner exit traction or braking point.

In terms of an average top speed comparison, Quartararo's 333.3km/h put him 9.1km/h behind the best average on that day of 342.4km/h by Marc Marquez's Ducati.

Due to its concession status, Yamaha can continue to modify its V4 engine design throughout the season and hold private testing with its race riders.