The 2025 MotoGP season is set to be an important campaign for Yamaha as it looks to get back on track following three years of struggle.
Boasting arguably two of the most talented riders on the grid, Yamaha is a team that desperately needs to develop following its first podiumless season in grand prix racing since 2003. While the results were disappointing in 2024, there were signs towards the end of the campaign that improvements were being made.
Fabio Quartararo is still undoubtedly one of the biggest stars in MotoGP, but the last two seasons have seen him overriding a bike that often doesn’t belong inside the top ten of races. Though there were fueling miscalculations which cost the Frenchman two chances of making the top five, he has regularly been performing at a level which proves why he is so highly rated within the sport.
On the other side of the garage, Alex Rins will be hoping to improve on a lacklustre first season with the factory Yamaha squad. Rins elected to have surgery in the off-season to help nurse a leg injury he sustained before joining the team and if the Spanish rider can return to full fitness, it would help them progress further towards the front of the field.
Rins remains the last rider to win a race for a Japanese manufacturer following his 2023 USGP victory and if the M1 improves, it is likely both riders would be capable of challenging for podiums.
Can Quartararo fight at the front again?
One of the notable absences in the fight at the front of the grid has been the 2021 World Champion Quartararo, as the Yamaha has been nowhere near the level of Ducati, KTM and Aprilia since the latter half of 2022.
In the seasons which have followed his world championship, Quartararo has had moments of brilliance but has also failed to replicate the form he showed in 2021 as the M1 continued on a steady decline.
2024 saw the lowest point of Yamaha’s struggles, as the manufacturer went a full season without scoring a podium for just the second time in the MotoGP era. However, towards the end of the year there were positive signs for both Quartararo and Rins, as points were regularly on the table from the Misano rounds onwards and both riders managed to place inside the top ten in Sepang.
Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia, who challenged the Nice native for the 2021 and 2022 titles, believes Quartararo could be fighting for podiums in the new season should Yamaha continue improving.
The sentiment isn’t yet echoed by the French rider, who says that the progress is more on a “step by step” basis, but he admitted by the end of 2024 he felt the bike was getting faster.
“Step by step, we will come back,” Quartararo said following the Barcelona test, “Of course I want it to happen tomorrow, but it takes time and the project is getting better.”
“I feel a bit faster. Closer, I don’t know. During a test day, it’s quite difficult to really analyse well, but in terms of position, we are a bit better even if it’s just a test.
“But we will see from the last day in Thailand where is really our realistic position.”
Quartararo also insisted he is “enjoying” the M1 again following a strong end to the 2024 season.
“I don’t even take it like work,” he said. “I’m enjoying the bike. I start to really enjoy the bike because I can push the limits.
“But we have a clear goal to come back [to the top] and whatever we can do to be back as soon as possible, we will do it.”
Will Yamaha introduce the V4 engine in 2025?
There has been much speculation as to when Yamaha will introduce the V4 engine, which it has been testing rigorously for the last few seasons.
Yamaha has been the only manufacturer running with the Inline4 engines since Suzuki’s withdrawal from the championship in 2022, but has decided to change directions in recent years with the development of the V4.
Rins revealed that the debut of the new engine was closer than expected, as Yamaha wanted to give the engine its first run out in its test at Jerez but was ultimately unable to do so.
“The idea was to test it at the KTM test in Jerez, but in the end, it wasn’t ready and couldn’t be tested,” the Spaniard revealed during an interview for the Por Orejas podcast.
