With the COVID-19 outbreak wreaking havoc on the 2020 motorcycle racing season and the global economy, the Grand Prix Commission, MotoGP’s rule-making body, has announced a raft of measures aimed at cutting costs.
The most significant change, already widely trailed, is that development of engines and aerodynamics is to be frozen for the rest of this year.
What that means in practice is that all six MotoGP factories (Aprilia, Ducati, Honda, KTM, Suzuki, and Yamaha) will have to race in 2020 with the engines they submitted for homologation in March of this year.
Normally, concession factories (Aprilia and KTM) would be allowed to develop their engines during the season, but to cut costs, that development has been banned for this season.
In addition, the GPC agreed that the MotoGP manufacturers without concessions (Ducati, Honda, Suzuki, and Yamaha) will have to start the 2021 MotoGP season with their 2020 engines.
This means that their engine designs will remain unchanged for any races that may occur in 2020, and for all of the 2021 season.
In terms of aerodynamics, all factories will have to use the aero package homologated for use in March for the 2020 season, and start the 2021 season with that package. They will then be allowed one upgrade for the 2021 season, as normal.
The Grand Prix Commission has imposed even greater restrictions on the Moto2 and Moto3 classes.
All development is frozen for those classes in both 2020 and 2021. Given the much smaller budgets for the Moto2 and Moto3 teams, and the involvement of small manufacturers such as Kalex, Speed Up, and NTS in Moto2, that makes much more sense.
Additionally, the Grand Prix Commission banned in Moto2 and Moto3 the ride-height altering devices that are just now starting to appear in MotoGP.
Since the switch to Moto2 and Moto3, those classes have been regarded as steps on the ladder toward MotoGP, and so technical restrictions have been put in place to put the focus on rider development rather than technology.
Banning ride-height altering devices – which would include the holeshot devices used by most MotoGP manufacturers now – makes sense in this context. This ban extends indefinitely, and is not limited to either 2020 or 2021.
Source: FIM; Photo: KTM
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