The FIM, Dorna & MSMA have been able to come to an accord on the new rules for the World Superbike Championship, and the name of the game is cost reduction.
In a series of changes that will begin in 2014, and applied over the next three seasons, WSBK will see a price cap for the teams’ race motorcycles and their components (rumored to be €250,000).
A maximum number of engines will also be set for each rider, a rule that has already been implemented in MotoGP with a great deal of success.
The last provision seems to be a guarantee from the manufacturers that a minimum number of motorcycles “with the same state of tuning” will be made available to teams for lease or purchase, though this provision doesn’t seem to distinguish from factory and satellite spec machinery.
The brief announcement from World Superbikes is after the jump.
Sweet baby Jesus, here we go again. We are only into the fifth round of the World Superbike Championship, and Effenbert Liberty Racing is having its first (and hopefully last) kerfuffle. Announcing that “the adventure of the team in the WSBK 2013 is not of our further interest” in a press release today, Effenbert Liberty Racing announced that it will no longer race in World Superbike.
Explaining that the team was unable to promote the interests of its sponsors and partners through WSBK racing, the Liberty Racing will skip the Donington Park round, which would have been only the fourth round of the season for the squad, having skipped the opening round at Phillip Island, and starting its season at Motorland Aragon.
BMW Motorrad Goldbet SBK’s Chaz Davies had some homework ahead of this weekend’s World Superbike round in Monza, as the Welshman spent time in BMW’s high-speed wind tunnel to work on his aerodynamics with the BMW S1000RR. With Monza being one of the fastest courses on the WSBK calendar, a rider’s ability to have the optimal body position down the the track’s long sections, where speeds can easily exceed 200 mph, is a crucial element to race-day success.
“It was a really interesting afternoon”, said Davies. “When testing on a track, you try new development parts and different settings but you are not working on your body. So it was great to experience in a stable environment with my riding position, to move myself around on the bike, to have elbows and shoulders in different positions and to then see in the data what difference it makes.