Yamaha to test V4 MotoGP engine at Valencia this week

Yamaha plans to test the V4 engine it has been developing for its M1 MotoGP machine at a private test in Valencia on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, Motorsport.com has learned.

Although the testing concessions enjoyed by the brand would allow Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins, the factory team’s riding pair, to put it through its paces, the work in Valencia is expected to fall to Augusto Fernandez and Cal Crutchlow.

Yamaha originally signed Andrea Dovizioso to focus on the testing of its V4 engine experiment, which has been under way for some months already. However, the Italian is not fit to ride following a domestic mishap in which he broke his collarbone.

Motorsport.com understands that this will be the first time the V4 engine has been tested on a European circuit. Earlier this year it made its debut in a private session at Sepang in Malaysia. That test featured a very early version, however, with a lot of work still to be done on the electronics in particular.

Augusto Fernandez, Pramac Racing

Photo by: Noushad Thekkayil – NurPhoto – Getty Images

Yamaha is the only manufacturer on the current grid whose bikes compete with an inline four-cylinder engine. But pressure from its riders, who have long complained of a lack of top speed, has led Yamaha’s engineers to look for alternatives – including a drastic change in the engine layout.

“If and when the bike with the V4 engine is better than the one we are using now, then we will introduce it,” Yamaha boss Paolo Pavesio told Motorsport.com in February. “[But] it is not realistic to think about making the change in 2025. When we give that bike to the factory riders we have to be convinced that it is at a good level.”