FIM President Vito Ippolito and Dorna Sports CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta confirmed engine capacity changes, which will come into effect for the 2012 MotoGP season.
For 2012, the maximum MotoGP engine capacity will increase to 1000cc, with a limit of 4 cylinders and a maximum of an 81mm cylinder bore.
This follows the 2002 rule change that included the introduction of the 990cc 4-stroke MotoGP motorcycles, which replaced the raw 2-stroke 500cc machines.
In 2007, the maximum MotoGP engine capacity saw a reduction from 990cc to 800cc to help reduce lap times. The 800cc 4-stroke rule continued in 2008 and 2009 and the lap times improved in most cases as the 800cc bikes got faster then the prior 990cc motorcycles. For 2010 and 2011 the 800cc bikes will persist and we expect lap times to continue to improve.
This sets up an interesting scenario for 2012 and we are looking forward to limit increase in 2012 to 1000cc 4-stroke motorcycles.
