Yamaha call up Andrea Dovizioso for Shakedown test which prompts V4 questions
Will we see the V4 in Sepang?
Andrea Dovizioso will be back on a MotoGP bike at this week’s Sepang Shakedown test.
He has been called up as a test rider by Yamaha to add to their ranks.
Yamaha and Honda, as per the concessions rules, are allowed to field their four race riders in addition to their test riders at the Shakedown.
The other three factories are limited to just their test riders and rookie racers, until the official Sepang test next week.
Dovizioso’s reappearance on a Yamaha comes after he spent time testing their M1 in the latter half of last season, replacing the injured Cal Crutchlow.
Intriguingly, his addition to the Shakedown prompts questions about whether Yamaha might debut their V4 engine.
Yamaha are still running an inline-four-cylinder engine but have admitted that they are developing a V4, to move in the same direction as their rivals.
The Shakedown test is untelevised and behind-closed-doors so might allow Yamaha an opportunity to quietly test the new engine.
Yamaha factory rider Alex Rins previously claimed that they hoped to test the V4, with Dovizioso on the bike, in December.
But Rins said that plan fell through because the engine wasn’t ready.
This weekend’s Shakedown, with Dovizioso joining test rider Augusto Fernandez, factory riders Rins and Fabio Quartararo, and Pramac’s Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira, is the manufacturer’s next potential chance to test the V4.
Yamaha do not expect to race with a V4 engine until the latter part of 2025, at the earliest.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
