What Fabio Quartararo was seen doing after Augusto Fernandez crashed Yamaha’s V4 bike at Sepang

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Yamaha’s latest V4 test at the Malaysian Grand Prix doesn’t appear to be going particularly well. Augusto Fernandez is making his second wildcard appearance with the new engine.

Fernandez was the slowest rider in qualifying, half a second behind the nearest Yamaha and over two seconds adrift of Fabio Quartararo, the pacesetter on the M1.

In the Sprint, Fernandez finished second to last, only beating Ducati test rider Michele Pirro and losing out to Jorge Martin’s Aprilia replacement Lorenzo Savadori by three seconds.

There are some important caveats. Yamaha won’t be pushing the engine to the limit at the prototype stage, and it’s more important that the V4 is truly competitive at the post-season test in Valencia.

Fabio Quartararo throws his arm up in frustration after Augusto Fernandez crash

Even if it’s far too early to cast a judgement on the V4 project, there appears to be a feeling of unease at Yamaha. The team are desperate to retain their biggest star.

Indeed, Yamaha have made a ‘colossal’ offer to Quartararo, but he’ll only accept it if the long-awaited departure from the inline four engine delivers a truly competitive bike.

In his capacity as a test rider, Fernandez’s most important job is to gather data. But with four crashes in his last two race weekends, he isn’t maximising his mileage.

And after he went down midway through FP2 on Saturday morning, TNT Sports commentator Gavin Emmett thought he saw an expression of frustration from Quartararo.

“Your number one role as a test rider, when you’re testing something like a new V4, is you’ve got to not crash the bike,” Neil Hodgson said. “And he crashed yesterday, that’s his second crash. He did the same at Misano, crashed twice.

Emmett replied: “I can hear frustration from them. I spoke to Jack Miller last night. He couldn’t say certain things, but he’s obviously keeping a very close eye.

“There, Fabio Quartararo’s perhaps just seen Augusto Fernandez down there at turn one. I don’t know whether Augusto’s got going, maybe the yellow flag was still out. But Fabio Quartararo was saying, ‘I don’t need to speak to Augusto, I can look at the lap times.'”

Fabio Quartararo’s ‘disappointed’ verdict on latest Yamaha V4

Quartararo pushed Yamaha to test the V4 again at Malaysia, so this outing wasn’t originally planned. He made clear that he wasn’t impressed after climbing on the bike post-Misano.

And speaking to Sky Italy on Friday evening, he reiterated those concerns. While he hasn’t given up hope, he ‘expected’ a bigger leap.

He said: “I’m disappointed with my pace and, looking ahead, with Augusto’s as well. From Misano to now, I haven’t seen the progress I expected. But let’s hope we see the light at the Valencia tests and then at the winter tests at Sepang.”

Yamaha’s V4 bike didn’t look ‘right’ out on track, sitting notably close to the ground at the rear. That’s a sign of the ongoing teething problems.