British motorcycle manufacturer Triumph is set to become the Moto2 World Championship’s official engine supplier from the 2019 season, taking over from Honda who currently supply CBR600RR engines to the series.
Motorcycle Grand Prix racing’s governing body, the FIM, opened up the tender process for engine suppliers for the intermediate class back in 2015. Honda have supplied engines to the Moto2 class since its inception in 2010 as the replacement for the 250cc World Championship.
New Euro4 emissions regulations are seeing a number of sports bikes going out of production, including Honda’s acclaimed CBR600RR. With HRC unable to guarantee the continual supply of replacement parts for the engine past 2019, a new powerplant for Moto2 is required.
British website Bikesportnews.com first caught wind of the deal between Dorna and Triumph at last year’s British Grand Prix, though it was kept under wraps whilst negotiations were finalised. According to BSN and Germany’s Speedweek, it is believed that Dorna have reached an agreement with the Hinckley firm.
When the tender process was opened, Austrian marque KTM were rumoured to have been interested in building engines for Moto2 but not as a sole supplier. With an engine war out of the question, Kawasaki, MV Agusta and Triumph emerged as the favourites to replace Honda.
Triumph is expected to use a 750cc or 765cc triple, with the engine likely to be slimmer than the current CBR600RR. Because of this, Moto2’s chassis manufacturers – Kalex, KTM, Tech 3, Suter and any more that may join before 2019 – will have to redesign their machines to accommodate the new engine.
Honda penned a three-year extension on their contract with Dorna back in 2014, taking them through to the end of 2018. The aim will be for Triumph to have their Moto2 engine ready by 2018 to allow plenty of testing to be conducted ahead of its Moto2 debut the following season.
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