No One Knows Whether To Love or Hate the New MotoGP Regulations
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They do agree, however, that water is wet. Though the sky’s color is still up for debate.
If there’s one thing that racing fans love to debate, it’s new regulations, as they come with all sorts of baggage that can be picked apart ad nauseum. I still recall the debate over Formula 1 switching from the V8s to the V6s. Hell, that debate is STILL going strong and it’s been ten years.
And that all rings especially true when these new regulations are launched years in advance, and are sweeping in their purview, as is the case of MotoGP’s rule changes for the 2027 season which were just launched.
Throughout the web, fans have already started arguing about MotoGP’s changes to the motorcycles, including the engine downsizing (1000cc to 850cc), reduction of aerodynamics, removal of ride-height and launch control devices, as well as other tweaks like a reduction in fuel capacity.
You can read Motorsport’s awesome coverage of all the changes here.
And wouldn’t you know, everyone’s got opinions about these new regulations. Most of the comments on Motorsport have to due with the ride height devices, with camps that are fiercely pro and against, with comments like “It’s silly to ban, it gave the riders more tools.”
Another reads, “Ride height devices came about as an aid at the start, then became more and more automatized being deployed in almost every turn…no one should wish to see riders avoiding riding in a group, or gamble with tire pressure guessing how they’ll be positioned or risk everything on a passing maneuver knowing they’ll have to fall behind if it doesn’t stick. This how F1 become such a sad parade.”
Just casually scroll and you’ll find differing opinions.
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Motorsport’s Lewis Duncan had his own take, too, adding “The move to ban ride height devices and limit aerodynamic development has been penciled into the rulebook to do just this. In recent years, a number of riders have spoken about how they make less of a difference on a modern bike than they used to. This, coupled with the fact excessive aerodynamics leads to overtaking being made harder, has somewhat held back the show. While the racing is still good, at times it can be much better. So, stripping back aero and banning ride height devices will definitely help in this regard, not to mention the fact that it will make MotoGP a bit safer.”
Instagram, however, had thoughts. 3,300 thoughts at the time of writing…
“The ONLY improvement to the current rules is the banning of the ride height and Holeshot device. Nothing else will benefit this sport for the future, only the engineers will get the benefits,” reads one, while another said “So Moto 2 is 765cc and now motogp will be 850cc… WHY?? Make MotoGP bikes faster, not slower.”
“Why are people upset? Less aero and no holeshot is a success! MotoGP it’s NOT F1, stop thinking like this, in MotoGP the bike matters, but the driver should matter the most,” read one in the affirmative toward the new regs, though scroll one comment later and you get, “Destroy the sport like you did with F1” which seemingly refers to Liberty Media’s purchase of MotoGP from Dorna.
One comment just read, “R.I.P MotoGP.”
I’ll interject just for a moment, but Liberty Media’s acquisition literally just happened. There’s no way in hell Liberty had anything to do with these regulations.
Reddit seemed to take on a more nuanced approach, with one Redditor saying, “I like to think the aero reduction and cc reduction work well together. We will see how it plays out but seems like a good play to me. Good news for more usable homologation tech. 850ccs now are lighter and make as much power the 1000s did back in 2012 anyways!”
Another read, “Regardless of your thoughts on close racing, I wonder if we will look back on this era the way we do with other Prototype golden eras. 90s aero CanAm, Turbo/V10/V12 era F1, LMP1, and some of the 500cc GP years. Crazy aero and ride height combined with large engines, European teams embracing the new tech while Japanese teams stubbornly refused. It mimics the Japanese adoption of 2 strokes leaving MV and the other Europeans in the dust, even having their star rider (Ago) jumping ship when it was clear they couldn’t compete.”
As for YouTube, you might as well just toss that trashfire out the door.
But what do you all think? Are you for or against these new technical regulations? Personally, I think…ha, just kidding. I’m not adding fuel to the fire.
At least not today.