As Yamaha prepares to close the chapter on its inline-four MotoGP era and move to a V4 in 2026, Fabio Quartararo admits he doesn’t yet know whether he’ll miss the M1.
That answer, he says, depends entirely on what comes next.
“Maybe I’m going to miss it, or maybe not,” Quartararo said late in the 2025 season.
“We don’t know how next year’s bike will be.”
“Of course, switching to a V4 will be good. But maybe next year, I’ll miss this bike. It’s also a new step in my career.”
Quartararo’s entire MotoGP journey has been spent on Yamaha’s inline machine — delivering 11 wins, 32 podiums and the 2021 world championship.
After a muted 2024, the Frenchman returned to the podium at Jerez in 2025 and was on course for victory at Silverstone before a ride-height device failure cruelly ended his chances. Two sprint podiums followed, but progress with the outgoing M1 was limited.
“I think the engineers were more focused on the 2026 bike,” Quartararo admitted.
“So unfortunately, the improvement during the season was quite low.”
“But I hope it’s for a good reason — to have a really competitive bike for 2026.”
Asked to pinpoint the most meaningful gain during the inline Yamaha’s final campaign, Quartararo highlighted one area above all others: electronics.
“Step by step, we improved the engine power a bit — not enough, unfortunately. But we worked a lot on electronics this year.”
“The biggest step was understanding how I can adapt better and be faster with less electronics. That, for me, was the biggest step we made.”
Quartararo finished ninth in the championship, scoring nearly double the points he managed in 2024. The next-best Yamaha rider was Pramac’s Jack Miller, down in 17th.
The inline Yamaha era may be ending — but the lessons learned in its final season could define whether Yamaha’s V4 future truly delivers.
