The end is here, as Yamaha has killed its legendary inline four-cylinder engine in its MotoGP race bike. After the rest of the MotoGP field forsake their own inline engines for the dominant V4 architecture, Yamaha was the last holdout. But last season, the talk amongst the paddock and online commentary centered around Yamaha's inevitable switch to the V4, too, as the Japanese company was hard at work building a prototype engine.
That day has now come, as during the last gasps of the year, Yamaha has found enough progress in the engine, something to which they hope to be competitive with ahead of the 2027 rule change, to field the motor in next year's race bike. We'll have to wait to see how that all goes.
But companies don't just spend millions of dollars in research and development on singular projects. These corporations expect to see returns on investment. And racing technology has long paved the way to consumer technology, with MotoGP being one of the easiest throughlines from racing to street tech around. So that leads me to the inevitable question of, since Yamaha has given up on its inline four-cylinder for racing, are the brand's street super bikes next on the V4 receiving line?
