Mika Kallio aboard the MarcVDS Suter-BMW (Photo: Dorna Communications)
Is this going to work?
Now we move from facts to opinion and mine is that it simply has to work. Failure is not an option. There is too much at stake. Dorna has played its cards well so far within the power structure of Grand Prix racing, managing to sneak the 12-engine, 24-liter sunrise past the sleeping MSMA rooster while the manufactures were distracted with many other issues. Now the MSMA has fully realized that the new MotoGP rules gave some very significant perks to CRT teams and, seeing their lucrative leasing market monopoly threatened, they are pushing back -- all this behind closed doors, of course.
The 81mm maximum bore with a maximum capacity of 1000cc and a total of four cylinders locks manufacturers into a 81mm x 48.49mm x 4 box although they can opt to sacrifice displacement and gain revs by adopting a shorter stroke. (Several engineers have predicted that 930cc with a 45mm stroke might be preferred.) A 48.49mm stroke coupled with the maximum 81mm bore limit virtually caps RPM under current technology at somewhere around 16,500 and makes pneumatic valve closing mechanisms superfluous and gratuitously costly, and the extra 24 liters for CRT bikes levels the usable horsepower playing ground.
In earlier days when the MSMA held most of the power and the manufacturers had autonomy and the power of the veto, they could change any rules they didn't like. But these rules, approved by Dorna, IRTA, the FIM and the MSMA, cannot be overridden by even a unanimous MSMA vote. Dorna with their automatic support from IRTA and their power to cast tiebreaking votes in the Grand Prix Commission are in the catbird seat.
Introducing new rules that further favor CRT teams, however, could be headed off under current rules by a unanimous MSMA negative vote. But Dorna, in spite of some reports, has not yet signed a new contract with the MSMA; a pre-agreement has been reached. Dorna believe that the current rules package sets the stage for an eventual MotoGP series with factory teams unable to dominate the series simply by making more power, and the Spanish rights holder will never give the MSMA back the power it once had to write the rules and then change them whenever there was unanimous agreement.
The rules package explained in this series carries the FIM seal of approval and cannot be changed without unanimous agreement -- not by the manufactures alone, but by the GPC (Dorna, IRTA, the FIM, and MSMA).
