The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team has unveiled its new livery for the 2026 season.

As in all years since Monster Energy became Yamaha’s title sponsor in 2019 the livery is predominantly black with the Yamaha blue accenting the bike. There is some added white this year, and some more blue around the front of the fairing.

The shape of the bike is also slightly changed this year with some new front wings, and perhaps the clearest visual change of all is at the rear of the bike with the extended exhaust by the tail section.

So, little change in the bike on the surface, but underneath we know it’s much different for this year thanks to the arrival of Yamaha’s V4 engine for the 2026 season. It’s likely to be an engine whose pay-off is only seen in the coming years, if at all, rather than in 2026, such is the significance of the change to a company that has run inline-four engines for the entirety of the four-stroke era of MotoGP so far.

It’s also an engine that will be the basis of Yamaha’s attempts to tie Fabio Quartararo down to another contract extension with the brands. The French rider has been with Yamaha since he joined the championship in 2019 with the Petronas SRT team, and with the factory squad of the Iwata marque since 2021.

In that sense, Quartararo’s time with Yamaha has been one of decline, since he won the title in the first season but has not been able to repeat the feat since, mostly due to a lack of performance from the YZR-M1. The V4 engine is unlikely to regain him his crown this year, but it could provide enough encouragement to the #20 that Yamaha is on the right path.

Even still, the chance to ride for more recently proven manufacturers is sure to present itself to Quartararo this year, and this time the temptation to move away might prove impossible for Yamaha to counter.

Also present in Jakarta for the factory team’s presentation was of course Alex Rins, who enters his third season with Yamaha hoping to find some more speed, having generally struggled throughout 2024 and 2025 – not helped, of course, by the lingering effects of the broken leg he sustained in Mugello 2023.

Despite the obvious energy drink class, Red Bull-backed Pramac Yamaha rider Toprak Razgatlioglu was also in Jakarta, following on from last week's Pramac launch. He was not on-stage, but in the audience. If Yamaha is in need of an elite rider for the 2027 season, 2026 rookie Razgatlioglu could prove himself worthy of the call this year.