Rumors of rule adjustment: Superbike World Championship in the future with 1,200 cm³ displacement

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Rumors of rule adjustment: Superbike World Championship in the future with 1,200 cm³ displacement
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Rumors of rule adjustment: Superbike World Championship in the future with 1,200 cm³ displacement

Rumors of rule adjustment in the Superbike World Championship
Motorcycles in the future with a displacement of 1,200 cm³?

Gregorio Lavilla, Sports Director of the Superbike World Championship, has confirmed that an increase in displacement is currently under discussion in the Superbike World Championship.


Slawomir Niewrzol

05/15/2020

Superbike World Championship motorcycles are currently not allowed to exceed the displacement limit of 1,000 cm³ – at least if they are equipped with a four-cylinder engine. Although there is a special regulation for bikes with two-cylinder engines that are allowed to start with a larger displacement, this engine concept no longer seems too attractive in the SBK World Championships. Anyone who knows the current and street legal sports motorcycles, for example from Ducati and Aprilia, knows that the new four-cylinder engines from the two Italian manufacturers with a displacement of more than 1,000 cm³ are rolling in. Accordingly, Ducati has to compete with motorcycles with a smaller displacement that were specially manufactured for the SBK World Championship. Aprilia has not even competed in the SBK World Championships since the rule change that came into force in 2019. According to Gregorio Lavilla, Sports Director of the Superbike World Championship, those days could soon be over.

The balance of power has to be right

Accordingly, there is currently a discussion about increasing the displacement limit for four-cylinder engines of certain types – for example V4 engines – in the SBK-WM. The aim is to prevent manufacturers from participating in the SBK World Championships being made more difficult due to the regulations. In return, however, you still have to make sure that there aren’t too great differences due to the design of the individual motorcycles. It is important to prevent manufacturers from being disadvantaged due to their global model strategy. There shouldn’t be an imbalance just because some manufacturers have decided to build series-produced motorcycles with more than 1,000 cm³, while other companies also pay attention to the 1,000 cm³ limit for their new models due to the SBK World Cup regulations not to be exceeded, so those responsible.

On the other hand, it could also be that differences in displacement do not necessarily have an impact on the performance of the bikes, similar to what can currently be seen in the 300 class. There they found a good balance and fair regulations, which, however, were not easy to declare and accordingly took time. So you don’t want to rush anything. Lavilla also reminds in his statement that things like the driving characteristics of the pilot and emissions also play important roles – displacement is therefore not the only key component of a motorcycle to win races. In the future, the aim is to find the best compromise between the sporting aspect and the interests of the manufacturers. Thanks to the balanced set of rules and the existing tools, you have the ideal prerequisites to easily integrate new concepts.

Conclusion

From the statements of Gregorio Lavilla it can be seen that some of the rules of the Superbike World Championship could change in the near future. However, nothing is official yet. Corresponding rule changes could definitely pay off, especially for Aprilia and Ducati. However, the question remains whether the disadvantage for the other manufacturers is not too great. Here Dorna has to show great sensitivity in order to create a fair compromise for all manufacturers.

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