Alex Rins: Biggest MotoGP difference not V4 or Inline engine, it’s aero

The Spanish star has ridden with both types of engine in recent seasons, winning fi൲ve races on the Inline✅-powered Suzuki from 2017 to 2022, then taking the V4 LCR Honda to a shock victory at COTA this year.
The 27-year-old𒐪, still recovering from leg fractures at Mugello, is now returning to an Inline4 by joining the Monster Yamaha team.
But 🐲while key design elements of the GSX-RR and YZR-M1 mighꦉt appear similar on paper, Rins described the Yamaha as a “very different bike compared to the Suzuki.
“I can enter the c🐭orner with more front brake [for example] and this is good because you can gain a 𒅌little bit on the lap time."
Rins then explained: “I think right now the difference between a V4 engine or an Inline4 is not the biggest differenceꩲ on the bike.
“Right now, the biꦦggest difference is the aero side. The aero makes you turn better or not, honestly, from my experience with other bikes.
“For exampleꦰ, with the Yamaha [at the Valencia test] I was riding with the standard fairing and🌼 with the wind I had a lot of wheelie.
“And when we trie♌d the different [new] fairing, I f♒elt less wheelie and more turning.
“So﷽ I think the difference now between the engine [design] d💞isappears.”
Rins was 19th fastest on 🐎his Yamaha debut at the Valencia test, but only half a second from new team-mate Fabio Quartararo.
“It𒁃 was super good. I felt quite comfortable with the bi𝕴ke,” Rins said.
“We split the day in two. In ꦿthe morning they gave me the setup of Fabio from the race and it was just laps, laps, laps to understand the bike
“Then in the afternoon, we tested some new fairin⛎gs and, as far as I know, one of the two fairings works better than the standard one.
“So I was quite happy overall.”
Rins gave the GSX-RR a dream far♍ewell with v𝓡ictory in its final race at Valencia 2022. Meanwhile, the Yamaha M1’s losing drought is longer, with its most recent victory several months earlier, in Germany that year.
Rins will be back on the M1 for the Sepang Shakedown test in early February, which Yamaha and Honda♉ race riders are now eligible for due to the revised concessions rankings.
Suzuki's 🍷MotoGP exit left Yamaha as the only MotoGP manufacturer not to u🔯se a V4 engine.

Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefron🎃t of the Suzuki exit sto🐟ry and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.