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Absurd as it may sound, there is more talk about the winglets this year now that they’ve been banned - or that they have appeared in another shape - than there was last season. Today, the technical managers of the 6 manufacturers in MotoGP met to talk about the hottest issues, including the prohibited spoilers.
Some would like to back-pedal, like Ducati, of course, and Aprilia who has always been in favour of aerodynamic development, but Kouji Tsuya, Yamaha project leader, also admitted that “in hindsight, I would not have banned them. It’s a pity, although finding alternative solutions is interesting.”
Also because the costs have increased, having to redesign all the fairings. Everyone admitted it, except for Schinichi Kokubo of HRC who maintained that they “spent less this year.”
Aprilia’s Racing Manager, Albesiano, also made another observation. “Now aerodynamic development of the bike has become more complicated technically. It requires greater specific knowledge. Therefore, there are logically also higher costs.” Dall'Igna, Ducati’s General Director, added: "Logically, having to restart from zero implies higher costs.”
There is no turning back and the Manufacturer representatives were all in agreement on one thing: the stability of the rules. In a world that rides on the razor’s edge between development and costs, rules that do not change with every gust of wind are important even if there are a few limits.
“The contradiction is that right now in MotoGP technologies that are normally used on factory bikes are prohibited. This narrows the field of development” Albesiano pointed out.
From this point of view, the HRC manager is in agreement. “I would like to be able to develop technologies like ABS or DCT”, the dual clutch gearbox that is on some Honda models.
We will see what the future of MotoGP holds. For the moment, no big changes are expected and Ducati took care of surprising everyone with the new fairing. Winglets again: different shape, but the same concept.
