Yamaha’s weak point has been the engine which leaves something to be desired in terms of power, which Fabio Quartararo himself complains about as he leads the championship in the standings. Recently, the automaker hired Luca Marmorini as an outside consultant, in an unusual move to bring in a non-Japanese engineer.
But the changes may not stop there. Asked by the MotoGP website if Yamaha might consider following the majority of manufacturers in switching to a V4 engine – rather than an inline-four as currently – team principal Massimo Meregalli confirmed that this could be considered:
– This is an aspect that all engineers take into consideration. I think they consider everything, but going from a setup where you know everything and have a lot of data to a new setup that you don’t know and need time to have a lot of information is a decision that you have to be very sure before you do it. At the moment we are still working on the current configuration, but I am sure that in parallel they will also think about other solutions.
With Team Suzuki Ecstar leaving MotoGP at the end of this season, Yamaha is expected to remain the only team with an inline-four engine – Aprilia, Ducati, Honda and KTM all have V4 setups.