“The new M1 doesn’t have a single strong point,” Fabio Quartararo said on the eve of the Brazilian Grand Prix, summing up Yamaha’s early-season struggles after switching to a V4 layout. Riders have repeatedly reported a lack of engine power and poor front-end feel, and Quartararo said the change has hurt one-lap performance compared with last year, when he still took four poles. Yamaha accepted an early-season performance drop after the layout change, and both Toprak Razgatlıoğlu—who attended the Jerez test on Michelin rubber—and Jack Miller have framed the package as a development project rather than a race-ready solution.

Yamaha’s between-races private test at Jerez and early Pirelli tyre work, partly focused on 2027 tyre development, produced no meaningful progress, riders say. On-track evidence underlined the problem: after the Thailand season-opener at Buriram Yamaha remained well adrift of rivals, with Quartararo the top Yamaha finisher in P14, and he and Alex Rins only scoring points largely because several front-runners retired. With Goiânia’s long corners and heavy braking points, riders warned that setup work would be especially important; Toprak said, “the M1 isn’t ready to compete, but I know things will be different in 2027,” and described ongoing adaptation via setup and gearbox changes.

For now the team plans to start weekends from the same baseline setup and use practice to make incremental adjustments rather than expecting a single track to deliver a quick fix. Yamaha hopes form will improve later in the season, possibly after the summer break, but anticipates more “suffering” in the short term. Off the track, Quartararo said he still enjoyed being in Brazil despite the technical frustrations.

Sources