Yamaha goes all-in on the V4, Quartararo's future in the balance, and Rins faces a decisive test

Monster Energy Yamaha has lifted the veil on a revolutionary project for a season that will have to provide many answers...

Barely time to start 2026 (they haven't even done the tests...) and people are already talking about the 2027 season and, above all, the rider market. It's partly understandable: MotoGP manufacturers aim to lock in their line-ups as soon as possible so they can focus solely on the technical side. Yamaha’s challenge with the new V4 is to create an “attractive product” for riders, primarily for Quartararo, who remains the brand’s top talent but has long been asking for a far more competitive machine. There’s also the question mark of Alex Rins, from whom a standout result is still awaited after two years with Yamaha... The “transition season,” as project leader Takahiro Sumi called it during the presentation, will instead have to deliver many more answers.

Will he stay or leave at the end of 2026? The dissatisfaction of the French rider, who won the MotoGP title with Yamaha in 2021, is no secret. During the Grands Prix, El Diablo has repeatedly highlighted the M1’s issues and therefore his own struggles, particularly in race trim. The bright spot was the number of pole positions—five (as in his title year)—recorded in the 2025 season, in line with what Pavesio said this morning: on a single lap Yamaha is there, but now the focus is on the race, where they’ve never managed to capitalize on starting from pole. Quartararo wants to be a protagonist in MotoGP and is loudly demanding an M1 that will let him do that—otherwise he’ll look elsewhere. The rider who has become Yamaha’s flag-bearer now pins his future on the new V4 project: he didn’t offer positive comments at the end of the year, but this is a revolution that began just a year ago and still needs to be developed throughout the season. However, time is very, very tight...

He made a name for himself during the Suzuki period, delivered a high point at Honda before all the physical woes, but once he moved to Yamaha we could almost say he “disappeared.” His record over the two years so far with the Iwata manufacturer speaks for itself, and it isn’t particularly positive: setting aside the injury that had its impact in 2024, he scored points only once in a Sprint (Le Mans 2025) and has just four top 10s in the long races. The haul of 68 points he brought home last year is certainly better than the 31 from 2024, but it’s rather meager for a rider who is certainly not “slow.” The feeling with the M1 seems to be missing, and consequently the final results are suffering and simply not coming. The 2026 MotoGP World Championship looks like the last-chance saloon with Yamaha (and perhaps not only Yamaha) for Alex Rins—will he manage to figure it out?