Moto2™: new engine, new era, new philosophy

A Press Conference on Monday gave delved further into what to expect from the intermediate class from 2019

Moto2™ is changing. Born in 2010 and raced with one philosophy for nine seasons, that’s evolving from 2019 as a new era begins – with a new engine manufacturer and new ECUs. Following intensive development and testing process, Triumph Moto2™ 765cc powered motorcycles are now just around the corner and on Monday after the Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana, a Press Conference to talk about the project took place.

Triumph Chief Engineer Stuart Wood, Technical Director from ExternPro Trevor Morris, Magneti Marelli Motorsport Bike Systems Manager Marco Venturi and MotoGP™ Director of Technology Corrado Cecchinelli gathered and talked through the project, the new ECUs and the goal for the intermediate class. First to speak was Stuart Wood of Triumph.

“The engine is built to develop more power torque and revs, less inertia and is lighter weight,” begins Wood. “There are more than 80 new components.

“Our testing and development has had three major phases. Development work has been going on for two years; rig testing and a lot of track testing. We’ve done over two and a half thousands race pace laps at a range of circuits and much more than that on development rigs.

“We now have an engine that’s reliable, consistent and is producing 140 PS. So that’s a good step and a step for the championship but more than that you have completely different torque delivery with much more throughout the whole rev range. That’s the character of the triple and that’s what we think will make this so exciting.”

Next to speak was MotoGP™ Technical Director Corrado Cecchinelli, who delved more into the reasoning behind the change, a lot of which comes down to the technical content of the class and positioning Moto2™ correctly between the lightweight class and the premier class.

“It’s an important step and I’m happy to be here for this exciting moment. Moto2 has been a success so far and for sure this series has some content we have to make sure we don’t lose like fair racing, a good show, and budget sensitivity. We have to be careful not to build a category where if a huge spender comes, he can win everything. So there are things to lose but a lot to gain.

“We expect some performance improvement but that’s not exactly the goal. We don’t have a problem with performance, what we’re looking for with this new engine is to take a step in terms of the technical content of Moto2™. Ride-by-wire is what helps us really make a step because it introduces different concepts of torque management, for the first time staff and riders will learn in Moto2 that there’s a chance to make the engine do what you like.”

The goal with torque maps and engine braking, and this new era: “something more than Moto3 but delivered in an easier format than MotoGP.”

Marco Venturi of Magneti Marelli was the next man on the mic.

“This has been a big challenge for us because the request was to improve the level of technology and the technical level of Moto2,” says Venturi, who went through each specific part of the system. “The knowledge on how to build it and what to select directly comes from our experience matured in MotoGP.” The Italian went on to explain the good number of similarities between the two. “We’ve tried to make the Moto2 closer to MotoGP, from the choice of the parts and the performance of the parts.

“We’ve worked on the system for more than a year, on the test bench on ExternPro premises and we made additional steps on bikes, working on bikes prepared for the occasion and following some tests for different chassis manufacturers. Some work on the running road, and finally some tests on track to make optimum calibrations. We are starting to use the system and we’ll see when it’s in the hands of the teams, I think it will improve their performance and knowledge of the bike and make Moto2 closer to MotoGP.”

Finally, Trevor Morris from ExternPro explained the new era had been a little while coming…

“We could see what we needed to go forward in Moto2, and the work we’ve been doing over the last few years…it started a few years ago when we wanted to find a replacement engine. The Honda engine served its purpose very well, but we knew we had to move forward. The Triumph engine was so easy to choose.”

Moto2™ head out for their first Official Test of the new era from the 23rd to 25th November at Jerez.