The crisis has taken its toll and major MotoGP rule changes -- desired by some (including all current MotoGP riders) and dreaded by others who believe Grand Prix racing should be as limitless as possible -- have already been approved.

MotoGP bikes will be allowed a maximum of four cylinders and 1000cc as of 2012, but it is possible and even probable that the first 1000cc bikes will be admitted for the 2011 season, sharing the track with the current 800cc machines for a single transitional year as occurred (but for two years) when the MotoGP 990cc bikes joined 500cc two strokes on a mixed grid in 2002.

The Grand Prix Commission
has already agreed to the basic regulations, but the full details of the technical regulations are still to be decided. SPEEDtv.com learned of these developments from utterly reliable sources and has been able to confirm these facts with other independent sources within the MotoGP paddock.

Already IRTA President Herve Poncheral has gone on record as saying that the new MotoGP class will be open to 1000cc engines in prototype chassis in 2012, but there is still some confusion as to whether the class will simply allow, or be limited to, production-derived engines and as to whether electronics will be limited

Here are the basic facts as they stand at this moment:

Production-Derived 1000cc Engines To Be Allowed

There will be no obligatory use of production-derived engines, but, likewise, production-derived four-cylinder 1000cc engines will be allowed. These engines can be modified in any way compatible with FIM technical regulations.

Prototype engines will also be allowed, and, in fact, when a production derived engine is modified in a substantial way (such as changing the cylinder head, changing the valve-closing mechanism, changing the bore and stroke, or modifying crankcases to allow rapid access to the gearbox for the purposes of changing internal ratios, etc.) it enters into a kind of technical limbo and can be defended as a “prototype,” according to Dorna, regardless of the origin of the basic design.

It is true that the WCM (Harris-framed MotoGP bike that originally appeared with a much-modified Yamaha R1 1000cc engine)
was declared illegal for MotoGP racing in 2003. After prototype crankcases were introduced, the bike was allowed to race at the end of 2003 (from the Portuguese GP) and in 2004 as a Harris WCM. In 2005 the bike raced as a Blata.

However the rules which led to the ousting of the Harris WCM in 2003 (until new crankcases were introduced), and which were used as a basis for denying WCM's case when an appeal was lodged with the European Court for Arbitration in Sport, were changed, and, notionally anyway, a production-derived engine with suitable displacement could race now in the MotoGP 800cc class. This, according to Dorna’s interpretation of their contract is a view contradicted by the World Superbike promoters IMS.

The new MotoGP rules which, according to MotoGP sources, go into effect no later than the beginning of the 2012 season, will be drafted in language that clears the way unequivocally for the use of production-derived engines in prototype frames.

Bore/Stroke Ratio Limited To Hold Down RPM

A further restriction that has already been approved will limit bore size or bore/stroke ratio in order to hold down RPM. According to our source, the only manufacturer currently working in a bore/stroke ratio that would be impacted by this limit is Ducati with their Desmosedici. Ducati, a member of the MSMA, however, reportedly agrees to accept these new limits and build a 1000cc engine to conform, perhaps based on the Desmosedici limited edition road bike or a completely new engine.

These general measures were proposed by Dorna at the German Grand Prix (July 17-19) but the MSMA (the association of manufacturers) asked to be given until the Grand Prix of Indianapolis (August 28-30) to come up with an option. Dorna asked the MSMA to look at the viability of supplying leased 800cc engines at a 'reasonable' price to private and satellite teams for 2011.

Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta said that if the factories could supply engines at an affordable price then private teams could fit them in prototype chassis
and compete. This would allow the factories to continue to run their factory teams in a class with an 800cc ceiling while the grid could be increased back to 22-24 bikes by private IRTA teams using leased engines.

At Indianapolis the MSMA informed Dorna that two factories of the four currently competing (Yamaha and Ducati) could offer a season of leased engines for one rider at a price of 700,000 Euros (just over a million dollars at current rates). At the time Ezpeleta hid his displeasure from the media and appeared to treat the offer as “a beginning point for negotiations” while hoping that the MSMA would be able to trim these costs, but behind the scenes Dorna was unsatisfied and the IRTA teams were furious since this was double the price they had hoped to pay for a rotation of six engines per rider. Once the cost was added for building prototype frames and outfitting them with the best brakes and suspension on the market, the cost of a bike running a prototype chassis and a leased engine would be on a par with the current lease costs for complete machines.

Takanao Tsubouchi, General Secretary of the MSMA, told SPEEDtv.com at the Grand Prix of the Valencian Community that the MSMA, due to the realities of the crisis, was reluctantly accepting the new 1000cc regulations. The situation, as he described it, was one in which the factories could not afford to supply complete bikes or engines for the sort of lease prices that IRTA and Dorna were asking for, so the only alternative in order to preserve the class was to accept “modified 1000cc production-derived engines.”

FIM President Vito Ippolito said, “Of course we would always prefer to see prototype engines in prototype bikes, but
there is nothing to prevent modified engines in MotoGP.”

Pressed, the FIM president allowed that the current rules do not prohibit the use of production-derived engines. “World Superbike uses production-derived motorcycles with a wide range of modifications. In MotoGP the chassis must be strictly prototype and the fact that a bike runs a prototype chassis that does not come from a homologated road motorcycle makes it a prototype. Dorna cannot race complete production-derived motorcycles and IMS cannot race prototypes. That is the difference.”

Coming in Pt 2: World Superbike Organizers Threaten Legal Action