Pramac has jumped to Yamaha’s defence at a point when the brand’s MotoGP project is under fresh scrutiny. With riders openly frustrated by the bike’s lack of pace, Gino Borsoi is asking for a broader view: this is a brand-new programme, not a mildly updated one. For readers, the real question is whether Yamaha is in crisis or simply paying the price for starting again from scratch.
That distinction matters. Yamaha’s current MotoGP results need to be read less like a temporary wobble and more like a full rebuild in progress. Pramac is keen to stress that point as the Japanese maker’s new V4 architecture enters competition with a long list of basics still to be nailed down. It is not glamorous, but then proper development rarely is.
Pramac says Yamaha should not be judged on raw results alone
At Jerez, after the fourth Grand Prix of the season, Borsoi pushed back against the growing narrative around Yamaha’s struggles. While plenty in the paddock see a factory under pressure, the Pramac boss says the more relevant lens is that of a project still taking shape. In other words, measuring the new bike purely against the timing screens risks missing the starting point entirely.
This is not just polite team-room diplomacy. Pramac is helping Yamaha through a difficult transition, while also overseeing Toprak Razgatlioglu’s MotoGP debut in far from ideal circumstances. Borsoi therefore has little incentive to dress things up. If he is calling for patience, it is because he believes the situation is more complex than the results table suggests.
A completely new bike does not behave like a mature project
The argument becomes clearer when you compare Yamaha with its rivals. The other manufacturers are building on V4 packages that have already been in circulation for several years. They are polishing established ideas, not inventing the foundations. Yamaha, by contrast, has opted for a clean-sheet machine, which changes the pace and the scale of development altogether.
This is not a simple technical refresh. Borsoi points out that the bike only began running three months ago in Malaysia, with six different riders involved if Dovizioso and Fernández are included. That inevitably affects expectations. Aerodynamics, engine, chassis and overall set-up are all still being worked through. Nothing is fully settled yet, which is precisely why the current gap looks so stark.
The key issue is time, and Yamaha simply has less of it than its rivals
Borsoi is not pretending the deficit does not exist. He is arguing that it has to be understood in context. Comparing Yamaha’s brand-new V4 with a package that other manufacturers have been refining for years is not especially useful when one side is still trying to make the whole thing work and the others are chasing the last few tenths.
The hard truth remains, though: Yamaha finished as the last of the four manufacturers in the opening Grands Prix of the year. The bikes are not close to the sharp end, and the riders have not been shy about saying so. Fabio Quartararo and Toprak Razgatlioglu have both made their frustration plain in different ways. That split between the garage messaging and what is being said on the bike says plenty about the pressure on the project.
The switch to V4 changes the way performance has to be judged
For years Yamaha was the outlier in MotoGP with its inline four-cylinder engine. Moving to a V4 this season is a major technical reset, with a bike designed around a completely different architecture and handed to the full rider line-up after several development wild cards last season. That is more than a powertrain swap; it opens an entirely new development cycle.
It also explains the very different reactions from within the camp. Riders want answers now. Engineers and team management are focused on building a stable base before chasing outright speed. Borsoi’s view is that Yamaha needs calm, structure and patience. Not exactly the sort of formula that wins headlines, but probably the only sensible one when you have decided to start again.
What Yamaha is doing now is also about the next rules change
The current work is not just about salvaging this season. Borsoi says it also feeds into the 2027 project, as MotoGP prepares for a new technical regulation cycle next year with capacity reduced to 850 cm3 and less aerodynamic appendage. In that light, every lap of development matters more than it might appear from the outside.
Factory team boss Massimo Meregalli delivered a similar message during the Jerez weekend. Yamaha, he said, is trying to get ahead of the coming changes so it can be as competitive as possible when the rulebook shifts again. That underlines the point: the manufacturer is not merely trying to rescue a difficult campaign, but to lay the groundwork for the next one. Useful in the long term, costly in the short term.
Yamaha’s challenge is to keep the future intact without losing the present
That is the tightrope Yamaha now has to walk. It needs to learn quickly without cutting corners, while also convincing riders who understandably want results immediately. In MotoGP, that is never an easy sell. And when rivals already have several seasons’ head start with the same architecture, any delay is punished quickly.
For now, Yamaha is asking to be judged as a programme at the start of its life, not a factory running out of ideas. That does not excuse the poor results, but it does change how they should be interpreted. In a paddock where every session is measured to the thousandth, shaping the narrative is almost a discipline of its own. Whether the bike can catch up is another matter entirely.
- Yamaha has committed to a completely new technical base with its V4 project.
- Pramac believes the current results should be seen as part of a development phase, not the finished picture.
- The performance gap to established V4 rivals is still clear on track.
- Riders are under more immediate pressure for results than the engineers guiding the project.
- The work being done now is also meant to support Yamaha’s next regulatory cycle.
- The priority is finding a balance between present competitiveness and a platform for the future.
