Yamaha's MotoGP sacrifice has robbed riders of all enthusiasm

The Yamaha V4 bike has given its project leaders the occasional reason to crack a smile or two during the 2026 MotoGP season - but its riders are clearly the unhappiest bunch on the grid.

The decision to introduce an entirely new engine configuration in the final year of a regulations cycle should give Yamaha a much better runway into 2027, when the V4 engine will be a must. But it has also turned the manufacturer's 2026 into an extended off-season, and its riders are struggling to cope with that reality.

Fabio Quartararo has delivered some scintillating laps but usually sounds either irritated or checked out, with a Honda move on the horizon for 2027.

Though he's led the line for Yamaha the vast majority of the season, he made it clear at Mugello that it was not worth the risk trying to salvage some of the weekends.

"There is a way where you are happy to fight for 12th. Or like this race, you know, when you're almost two seconds per lap slower - you don't really want to push," said Quartararo.

"When you're getting closer, you have something that you are feeling well with - you want to push, even if you are slow. But now it's more of a nightmare than enjoyment. That's why I feel it's not necessary to push that much."

That was perhaps a particularly cynical way of looking at it - but Quartararo's Yamaha peers, who should have a greater motivation to place as high as they possibly can, likewise seem disillusioned with just how meaningful the whole affair is.

Put rookie Toprak Razgatlioglu aside, for a second. Though he too is upset at his place in the classification most days, he seems to be able to channel his focus into learning the MotoGP riding style and the Michelin tyres (even if they will be replaced by Pirellis next year). His level of frustration has been high - but it has not become ennui.

For Alex Rins and Jack Miller, it certainly feels that way.

Rins is known to be out of the factory Yamaha line-up next year; he himself announced that. Miller has been more cagey, but his chances of retaining his Pramac Yamaha seat appear slim-to-non-existent, with Izan Guevara - already on Pramac and Yamaha's books - expected to step up from Moto2.

Both need to ride at their best to help their market value, and Rins - it felt - was doing exactly that at Mugello, a contender (despite the Sunday DNF) for his actual best weekend as a Yamaha rider.

But he just could not show any enthusiasm for beating his fellow Yamaha riders - even when The Race put to him these were the only riders he could realistically target beating right now.

"For example, [Takahiro] Sumi-san, the really big [Yamaha] boss, congratulated me," Rins said after the sprint.

"And I said, 'Sumi-san, thank you, but I'm not happy'. He said, 'Actually, here you are the best Yamaha'. I said, 'Yes, but it's not enough! I want to improve the bike. I want to have a better bike'.

"Maybe it's my fault, it's my mentality, but it's like this. I'm pushing hard, like every day at home, to be a better rider. But then I arrive here and it's like there is a limit."

And Miller said it was all too easy to empathise. "At the end of the day he finished 17 seconds behind first. We're clutching at the straws at the moment. We're trying to chisel our way up the leaderboard - but it's f***ing difficult."

But the progress of the project should, in theory, matter much less to Rins and Miller than individual bragging rights - if it's true that neither has a big future with Yamaha, as certainly appears to be the case.

The other problem, though, is that they're known quantities, perhaps 'damaged goods', and never on TV in their battles - out of sight, out of mind.

Asked by The Race whether it felt people just didn't care or notice at all which of the Yamaha riders were performing better, Rins said: "Yeah...can be [like that]. Can be."

And his outlook for future racing employment sounded as dreary as ever.

"Same as I said before: I don't have a good bike to show all my potential," Rins lamented. "And what is going to happen, I don't know.

"I would like to continue here, but time flies, and it's difficult to find something, so honestly, I'm quite - how to say - not 'relaxed', but I'm calm, because I know my potential.

"And if in the end I cannot find anything, it's what it is, it's life. I mean, luckily I have a good family at home."