Yamaha disaster, Jack Miller admits: "An almost desperate situation

Yamaha struggling at the start of the 2026 MotoGP season; after Austin there are no signs of progress: Jack Miller’s take.

The United States Grand Prix was an ordeal for Yamaha, still a long way from being competitive. The V4-powered M1 is still a very raw project; the riders find themselves fairly helpless on race weekends because no strengths have emerged so far that would allow them to fight their rivals more effectively. On Sunday, after just five laps, they were already 10 seconds behind the leader, Marco Bezzecchi.

The rider with the most experience on V4 engines is Jack Miller, who is trying to provide useful feedback for development, but there’s still a lot to do. In Austin the Australian finished fourteenth in the sprint race and sixteenth in the main race, scoring 0 points. On Sunday, the last four positions in the results were occupied by the four Yamaha riders, with Toprak Razgatlioglu fifteenth and the best of the “bunch.”

Even if he doesn’t want to be all doom and gloom, Miller still highlighted the main things Yamaha is missing right now: “From mid-race to the end the pace wasn’t bad,” reports Motosan, “we were consistent, lapping in just over 2:03. We know what our problems are: we’re lacking top speed, we need to improve in that area; and we need more front-end feel, more grip. We’ve got three weeks off, so hopefully we can make some improvements. If not before, then at least during the tests.”

Improving the engine is a vital mission, as is gaining more grip both at the front and the rear. The Australian rider hopes interventions will come as soon as possible: “We clearly need a new swingarm and a new frame. I know those updates are underway, along with attempts to further refine the engine. Before Jerez, I don’t think so. But many engineers are heading back to Japan to work there and try to push to the maximum. We’re in a tough, almost desperate situation. The problem is the championship waits for no one, so we have to make the most of every opportunity and keep pushing.”

An almost desperate situation, says Miller. A phrase that clearly suggests Yamaha still hasn’t found the right path for developing the M1. There was awareness that it would be a difficult journey, also because a V4 engine had never been used by the Iwata manufacturer in MotoGP, so immediate competitiveness could not be expected. At the same time, it’s normal for the riders to be heavily frustrated, especially when they can’t see light at the end of the tunnel. There’s a lot of work to do.

Yamaha is working extremely hard—there’s no doubt about that—but what’s been done so far isn’t enough. Fabio Quartararo’s words (“The team has no ideas to solve the problems we have”) are worrying. 2026 is certainly a shakedown year ahead of 2027, when there will be new technical regulations and the pecking order on track could shift a bit, but the Japanese manufacturer has to find a way to raise its level. It’s tough to see their riders struggling this much.

The article with the original interview in Spanish on Motosan.es