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After lengthy discussions, the freeze on MotoGP engine development in the 2025-2026 two-year period is about to become a reality. According to our Motorsport.com colleagues, the measure will in fact be ratified at the next meeting of the Grand Prix Commission, which is expected to be held before the Emilia-Romagna GP, scheduled for the weekend of September 20-22 in Misano.
With the entry into force of the new technical regulations in 2027, which stipulate a reduction of the engine displacement from 1,000 to 850cc, the governing bodies of the championship have decided to contain manufacturer investments in the last two years of use of the current generation of engines, to allow them to focus more resources on future developments.
It is a strategy that traces the one adopted between the beginning of 2020 and the end of 2021 to alleviate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic by reducing the manufacturers' costs, and which will see all manufacturers enjoying concessions exempt from the restriction.
Once the rule change is approved, all Manufacturers except Yamaha and Honda, which can rely on the concessions unless they perform well enough to change their bracket, will then have to homologate their engines before the Thai Grand Prix that will start the 2025 season and will not be able to change them again until the end of the 2026 season. Unless interventions are required and approved for safety reasons.
Although all brands will be able to benefit from a reduction in costs at a critical stage such as the 2025-2026 two-year period, in which they are called upon to carry out in parallel the development of the 2027 project and the evolution of the current motorcycles, those who will benefit most from the engine freeze will almost certainly be the Japanese manufacturers and Ducati, a great supporter of the measure, as Gigi Dall'Igna, host of our Bar Sport in May, had anticipated.
If, on the one hand, enjoying the concessions will allow Yamaha and Honda to continue to work freely on their engines, to try to recover at least part of the competitiveness lost in recent seasons, on the other hand, the engine freeze will ensure that the Borgo Panigale-based manufacturer can more easily maintain the supremacy it has over its rivals, until the new technical regulations come into force.
Indeed, limiting the areas of intervention means giving manufacturers less leeway to develop and improve the performance of their bikes and, as a result, try to reduce the gap from Ducati, the undisputed queen of the current MotoGP.
