[kropotkin thinks...] - Yamaha's Masao Furusawa "Engine Life Rules Will Increase Cost

[Ninjette Newsbot]

If you enjoyed reading this article, please click here to view it on Kropotkin's site, MotoGP Matters.

-----------------

In times of crisis, drastic measures are necessary. That has been the thought behind many of the cost-cutting measures put forward to help MotoGP tackle the global financial crisis which has threatened to engulf the series since late last year. Yet the sense of urgency engendered by the seriousness of the situation can lead to hasty decisions, and cause those gathered round the table to jump to conclusions which, upon closer examination, turn out to have the opposite effects to what was intended.

According to none other than Masao Furusawa, head of Yamaha's MotoGP program, that is exactly what has happened with the proposals to extend engine life. According to Motorcycle News, the head of the Japanese giant believes that the new rules will force the factories to redesign the existing engines for more durability, raising development costs. "If we decide to use one engine for two or three races, with the current engine you can’t do that," Furusawa said.

Redesigning the engine will lead to bigger costs, Furusawa said. He added that in the long term, costs could be cut, once the teams start seeing savings from the reduced maintenance cycles required by the more durable engines. But before they get to that stage, the factories will have to invest.

From the moment that the cost-cutting measures were rumored, we here at MotoGPMatters.com have argued that this was exactly what was going to happen. The option of limiting revs was dismissed out of hand by Furusawa, for the obvious reason that this could hand their rivals a potential advantage. And so to extend engine life, the first thing that the engineers are going to do to redesign the engine for more robustness without sacrificing horsepower. That redesign, we argued, would lead the factories to spend more money, rather than less.

read more