MotoGP will run with new engines from 2027. The displacement is reduced from 1000cc to 850cc, and the cylinder bore also changes: 75 millimeters instead of the previous 81 millimeters. This was officially announced at the beginning of May. For manufacturers, this means developing completely new units, which is associated with a correspondingly large amount of effort.
The manufacturer alliance MSMA (Motorcycle Sports Manufacturers Association) is now negotiating a development stop for the existing engine generation with the start of the 2025 season in order to free up capacity for the new engines. Ducati and KTM are seen as big advocates of such an ‘engine freeze’, Aprilia as a shaky candidate, and the stumbling Japanese from Yamaha and Honda as opponents.
“In my opinion, the engine freeze is essential,” says KTM motorsport director Pit Beirer in an interview Motorsport-Magazin.com clear position. “Every manufacturer has to build a new engine for 2027. For this you need full capacity and your best engineers. It would therefore be completely mindless for the entire scene to burn millions to somehow build new engines for the last two years. We are therefore clear for an engine freeze.”
MotoGP development: Pit Beirer for stop 2025
If Beirer has his way, the winter of 2024/2025 would be the last period in which the current engines can be further developed. The freeze should come into force at the start of the 2025 season: “I think March 2025 would be a good time. You can collect new insights over the winter, implement them and add new parts to the motorcycle. The engine you then But it’s your engine for the next two years. Then you can put the engineers on the new unit. Overall, a switch to a new cubage doesn’t cost more than a further development of the previous engines, but if you have 850 and If you build 1000 series engines, you obviously have twice the effort and twice the costs. That’s why the Freeze is a no-brainer for me. Anyone who demands something different seems to have too much money.
MotoGP engine freeze not for latecomers
Beirer also shows little understanding for the resistance from Japan: “An engine freeze would only affect Ducati, KTM and Aprilia, because Yamaha and Honda still have concessions that would remain in place.” Yamaha and Honda are currently ranked D in the concession regulations. While the European competition has to freeze their engines for the entire season at the level of the first race weekend, they are allowed to develop engines freely. However, if the current regulations in this area remain valid, they could lose this privilege if they were promoted to rank C, for example in the 2025 season. This requires more than 35 percent of the possible points in the manufacturers’ standings. However, both manufacturers are a long way from that at the moment: after five race weekends, Yamaha has a rate of 15.13 percent, Honda only 9.19.
Motorsport-Magazin.com says: If the exact conditions are right, an engine freeze for MotoGP would definitely be a good decision. In terms of engines, Ducati, KTM and Aprilia are more or less on the same level; big leaps are no longer to be expected here with the current 1000ccm formula. A stop to development would therefore not have a major impact on possible changes in the balance of power between the current contenders for victory. For Yamaha and Honda, two years without further development would be a slap in the face in the current situation. If, as a manufacturer in rank D, they are allowed to continue working on their engines, an engine freeze would actually be an advantage for them, as the competition will not see another leap in development in 2026. (Markus Zörweg)