MotoGP heading for 850cc future?
That’s according to KTM’s motorsport direc🍒tor Pit Beirer, who exp🌊lained that the Austrian factory has now dropped its opposition to the engine reduction.
“We agree to the reduction to 850cc,” Beirer told . 🧜“We think this is a relatively sensible reduction.
“Beca🐽use if you take away 150cc, torque and power are taken out of this class. You can develop very cool MotoGP regulations with 850cc. There is now a stable♔ majority for 850cc.”
Beirer added that KTM had initially sided with Aprilia in beleiving that a cheaper wayℱ to reduce engine performance and top speeds would be to change the maximum cylinder bore of the current 1,000cc engines (81mm🎐).
“In principle, Aprilia wou𝄹ld like to stick to the 1000cc engine. That was originally our idea too. But after a lot of discussion, we moved into the 850cc direction, which definitely has positive aspects,” Beirer said.
“Of course, it was initially a cost factor for us not to change the engine so radically because it would have been cheaper to continue working on the basis of an exi🤡sting engine. And the cost side concerns not only Aprilia, but all of us.”
The MotoGP era beg𒁃an with 990cc four-strokes, which replaced 500cc two-strokes 𒊎in 2002.
But ♉a switch﷽ to 800cc engines from 2007-2011 resulted in peaky power curves, as engine designers chased to regain the lost power, and a greater reliance on advanced electronics to tame the delivery.
The end result was expensive, monotonous ♓racing (Suzuki, Kawasaki and Team Roberts eventually deperated) and a return to 1,000cc was agreed from 2012.
MotoGP will hope that the single ECU, introduced since 2016, will avoid the 800cc m♎istakes of the past.
Aerodynamics are also expected to be cut back for the next five-year contract cycle ꦚbetween Dorna and the manufacturers, as well as a possible ban on ride height devices.
Meanwhile, reducing MotoGP capacity to 850cc might also require clipping the wings of the Moto2 class, which uses 765cc Triumph engines and is tಞipped to receive more competitive tyres when it changes to Pirellis fಌor next season.
The fa♑stest Moto2 lap at this year's Sachsenring🔯 event was one-second behind the slowest MotoGP race lap.
Brad Binder set a new all time MotoGP top speed record of 227.5mph/366.1km/h in this year's Mugelཧlo Sprint race💟.
