Honda is to continue to supply engines for the Moto2 class. Dorna announced today that they had reached agreement with Honda Motor Company to provide engines for the intermediate class for three more seasons, from 2013 through 2015.
Maintenance of the engines has been switched, however. The Swiss-based company Geo Tech Engineering lost the contract for maintenance on the spec engines, which has now shifted to ExternPro, an engineering firm based at the Motorland Aragon circuit.
The extension of the single-engine deal means a switch away from a spec-engine rule in Moto2 is unlikely to happen for the foreseeable future. Having a single engine has proven to be an effective way of controlling one aspect of costs in the series, though in many cases, that has merely led to the top teams finding other areas to spend their money on.
The contract extension also means that it will be harder for the series to switch to a different brand of engine, as chassis builders accrue ever more data on how the engines work in their frames. Switching engine suppliers would mean all of the Moto2 teams having to dump their old chassis and build new ones, along with starting from scratch with set up data.
On the whole, the Honda engine has worked well in Moto2. The only real complaint about the engine has been that it is not possible to switch gear ratios. That is one of the key aspects which some in the paddock feel Moto2 riders miss out before heading to MotoGP. As long as the CBR600 does not have a cassette-style gearbox – and being a relatively cheap road bike, it is unlikely ever to get one – this issue will remain.
Source: Dorna; Photo: © 2012 Jensen Beeler / Asphalt & Rubber – Creative Commons – Attribution 3.0
Comments