MotoGP – Moto GP guide: everything you need to know about the 2012 season – MotoGP: what changes in 2012

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Moto GP guide: all you need to know about the 2012 season

MotoGP - Moto GP guide: all you need to know about the 2012 season - MotoGP: what changes in 2012

Exclusively on the web, Site offers you its 2012 MotoGP Practical Guide. Driver files, presentation of circuits and motorcycles, rating of contenders for the title: all the information and key figures of the 2012 MotoGP World Championship !

MotoGP: what changes in 2012

In 2012, three major events will upset the physiognomy of the world motorcycle Grand Prix championship: the disappearance of the 125 cc 2-stroke in favor of the 250 cc 4-stroke Moto3 (see box below), the increase in engine capacity authorized in MotoGP (from 800 to 1000 cc) and the introduction of Claiming Rules Team (CRT) in the premier class (read in particular).

First set at 990 cc (between 2002 and 2006) then reduced to 800 cc (from 2007 to 2011) to slow down – without success! – maximum speeds, the displacement of MotoGP goes back to 1000 cc for two reasons: to strengthen the link with commercial sports cars (800 cc not being commercially very meaningful) and to attract new manufacturers.

On paper, the initiative is excellent: the liter of displacement is a more attractive basis for manufacturers like Aprilia, BMW or Kawasaki who dream of joining the elite of motorcycle sport – or rather of "reintegrating" for the Greens !

Welcome to Moto3 !

In 2012, the 125 cc and their single cylinder "holes" left the Continental Circus: they were the last 2-strokes entered in Grand Prix since the creation of the championship in 1949. They are replaced by the Moto3, motorcycles powered by 250cc 4-stroke single-cylinder engines built by Honda, KTM, Mahindra, Idoa and Oral. Technically, the weight of the motorcycle + rider assembly must not exceed 148 kg, the number of engines is set at eight (per rider and per season) and the engine speed and its bore are limited to 14,000 rpm and 81 mm maximum. In addition, the number of gears is limited to six and the maximum sound level is fixed at 115 decibels. As in Moto2, carbon discs are prohibited, tires are supplied by Dunlop (2.50×17 inch front rims and 3.50×17 inch rear rims mandatory) and the unique electronic box is provided by the organizer . Finally, the engine of any Moto3 can be bought by a competitor for 12,000 euros (read our

In addition, with the additional torque available, the spectacle on the track should regain intensity: too "sharp", the 800 cc do not encourage overtaking and are even partly responsible for the races in processions in force for several seasons..

Thanks to the greater engine availability of the 1000 cc, pilots will indeed have more latitude: while the 800 cc required a single trajectory – as smoothed as much as possible (in "U") to maintain as much speed as possible – the Higher torque available from the 1000s should allow less restrictive runway operation.

Less fluid, the driving style will be closer to that, in "V", of the 500 cc 2-stroke: we brake hard, we rush to the rope and we immediately raise to pass the power – a priori the highest of the history of GPs – on the ground. Result: if it will not be easier to apply the brakes to a rival when entering a curve, keeping your advantage at the exit will certainly be so. !

Unfortunately, what the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM), the manufacturers engaged in MotoGP (MSMA) and Dorna, the promoter of the GP, had not foreseen when ratifying this new regulation, is the arrival – and especially the intensity – of the global crisis…

CRT: the "low cost" MotoGP

Weakened by the generalized economic recession, the elitist discipline of MotoGP has become too expensive: 1000 cc or not, no new manufacturer wants to invest in this troubled period in a category where every hundredth gained is in millions of dollars. euros of R&D…

Illustration: the resounding withdrawal of Suzuki at the end of 2011. And as Ducati, Honda and Yamaha stubbornly refuse to reduce the price of their expensive prototypes (estimated at more than 3 million euros per season for an RC213V), the organizers have found another way of lowering the costs of the top category to facilitate access: create a "sub-category" called Claiming Rules Team (CRT).

Concretely, the CRTs are MotoGP whose design of the cycle part is left completely free, but which must be propelled by a series engine (only a 4-cylinder) with a maximum bore of 81 mm. Or a mix between MotoGP and Superbike to the chagrin of Infront, the promoter of the WSBK which has just been bought – as if by chance – by Bridgepoint, the owner of MotoGP (read) !

Aware that a commercial engine, even well prepared, will never be able to compete with one of the mechanical jewels shaped by Ducati, Honda and Yamaha, Dorna has granted several technical advantages to the CRTs: a larger fuel tank (24 liters instead of 21 on the RC213V, YZR-M1 and GP12) and a larger number of engines (12 blocks per driver per season against six for the prototypes).

To prevent a manufacturer from entering a prototype "disguised" as a CRT, development is limited by a measure already in force in Moto2 (and in Moto3 this year) inspired by American races: the CRT engines could be bought by a competitor against € 15,000 (or € 20,000 with transmission). Hence the use of the verb "to claim" in the denomination of CRTs.

Under these conditions, no participant should – in theory – invest millions of euros in "ultra-typed" mechanics or extremely sophisticated electronics, at the risk of seeing the benefits of their work serve the interests of a company. rival. In theory only, because the CRT of Randy de Puniet and the other ART (Aprilia Racing Technology) pilots seems to be very technologically advanced….

Abundantly criticized and certainly perfectible, the CRTs (also nicknamed "Moto1") nevertheless made it possible to ensure a decent 2012 grid: without the nine CRTs presented in detail in the last part of this practical guide, the 2012 MotoGP world championship does not would have opposed only 12 motorcycles (four Ducati, four Honda and four Yamaha)…

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