Triumph torque brings Moto2 closer to MotoGP
Moto2 riders got their first taste of the official Triumph race engines and Magneti Marelli electronics during testing at Jerez in late November.
The extra torque from the 765cc triple - compared to the former 600cc four-cylinder Honda engines - was the hot topic of conversation and will require a more 'MotoGP' riding style.
Those best placed to make the comparison are Sam Lowes and Thomas Luthi, the only riders on the 2019 Moto2 grid that have also spent a season in the premier-class.
"The corner speed is loads slower than I was on the Honda engine, but exit and entry are already faster," said Lowes, returning to Gresini and Kalex for 2019.
"Okay, it's not MotoGP - it's 130hp - but it's more like MotoGP in the way that you have to stop it more than you did on the Honda Moto2 engine," said Lowes, who raced for Aprilia in the MotoGP during 2017.
The Englishman, second fastest to Luca Marini at the test, added that it's "a breath of fresh air to have power in your hand" and that "you've got to play" with the throttle with the Triumph.
"Honestly, when everyone got 40% out of a corner on a Honda Moto2 bike they were flat out. You do that now, you'd be wheelieing. So it's nice having to work with that," he explained.
"It’s like your window of good power is a lot bigger now. You can short-shift and drive. You're not having to run lean angle to carry the rpm.
"With the Honda engine everyone was more-or-less riding on the same line. Hanging out of it and carrying the speed. Now, you can do that, but also you can stop-start it.
"I think that'll be nice for battling, for passing and it'll be a lot more of a stepping stone [to MotoGP]. Also for the fans it'll be a better, more wheelie and a lot more moving about at the end of a race. More action."
Luthi, who spent a tough 2018 on a Marc VDS Honda in MotoGP, is returning to the intermediate class after signing for the Dynavolt Intact team.
"Now I'm coming back and I was also thinking, 'Moto2 will be closer to MotoGP' - but still you need the corner speed compared to the big bikes," he said.
Nonetheless, "I think it's the right moment to get back into this class because sure, it's still Moto2, but it's not the 600cc engine and there is quite a lot of torque from the Triumph out of the turns.
"I was actually impressed by the engine.
"I was just talking with Sam and he was saying the same. It's quite hard to control actually, there's quite a lot of torque at the bottom. On the corner exit, but also already on the apex it's very difficult because you have to be so smooth and so careful.
"I think that's why we saw some highsides. Because it's very difficult to control. You need to be calm and very smooth with the throttle. It's just new and we have to find a way to set it up properly to get more control."
Alex Marquez, preparing for his fifth season in Moto2 with Marc VDS, also singled out torque as having a big impact on riding style...
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Alex Marquez, preparing for his fifth season in Moto2 with Marc VDS, also singled out torque as having a big impact on riding style.
"The torque of this bike is much, much more than the Honda engine. So the riding style has changed a lot," said Marquez, who has previously tested a MotoGP bike.
"It’s nice because it's like more MotoGP style: Try to stop the bike, square the corner, but then also think about the exit.
"I need to improve more because I've been in Moto2 for many years with the Honda engine, so I have some problems to change, but step-by-step we are doing quite well.
"In the end I think it will be better for everybody - and for the Moto2 category - to have this new riding style. I think everyone has a smile on their face."
New team-mate Xavi Vierge was certainly one of those smiling.
"It feels very good. It's a nice challenge. The engine is amazing. The torque is unbelievable. I feel too much power from the middle of the corner to the exit and it's a nice change," he said.
"With the Honda engine everybody found a lot of corner speed. With this bike it's a little bit different. We need to adapt the riding style more like MotoGP. Brake, try to stop in the middle of the corner a bit more, to take profit from the engine on the exit."
But surprisingly, given the larger engine and boost in torque, Vierge - like Lowes - found powerslides more difficult.
"With this bike I feel more grip on the rear, so it's not easy to spin a lot," said Vierge.
"The feeling at the minute is that it's harder to turn the bike from the rear," said Lowes. "We need to understand that a bit more."
Part of the issue could be setting up of the new electronics package, which allows different torque maps, engine braking and launch control for the first time in Moto2.
Although the features are based on the same Magneti Marelli system used in MotoGP, the range of options allowed for Moto2 are currently very limited.
"I think they will open the map options more step-by-step," Marquez said. "Especially the engine brake they need to open a little bit more because the options we have now are so limited and you cannot play a lot."
"As Alex says, at the beginning it's quite closed and we cannot manage a lot of things," agreed Vierge. "We had only three settings for engine brake and three for engine maps, but all day I stayed more-or-less with the same one."
"The electronics are interesting, but for sure it's far from the possibilities in the MotoGP class," Luthi said. "From one side I'm happy about that, because MotoGP's getting so complicated and with that expensive.
"But it's nice to have something more to play with in Moto2. I expect or I hope that [the electronics] will get more open from the rules side, to show also the potential of the teams. I think this would be nice."
"It'll allow you to do more and it'll allow you to mess up more, because you've got more variables," Lowes said. "But that's alright, that's where you need a good team, good people who are smart."
Overall, Luthi feels it's been a promising start for the revamped category.
"It's very impressive that this new project is at quite a high level already. The pack is quite competitive, the times are close. It's impressive and shows that many teams are working very professionally."
But what about the rookies, who are jumping straight to the Triumph engine from a 250cc Moto3 machine, without any prior experience of the 600cc Moto2 class?
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But what about the rookies, who are jumping straight to the Triumph engine from a 250cc Moto3 machine, without any prior experience of the 600cc Moto2 class?
"I enjoyed it a lot, from the first lap to the last," said new Tech3 KTM rider and former Moto3 title contender Marco Bezzecchi.
"Corner speed is completely the opposite between Moto3 and Moto2 because, you have to brake very hard in both categories, but in Moto3 the sooner you can release the brake, the faster you go.
"With Moto2 sometimes you have to keep the brakes on more, even if you feel you can release.
"With Moto3 you also have to be very smooth, very precise to pick-up the bike as slow as you can to reach a lot more corner speed, a lot more rpm, because the wheelie is very small."
Bezzecchi said he has been experimenting with his riding position on the Moto2 bike.
"Sometimes it's more important how you move on the bike than a modification to the forks for example. I tried to put my weight more in front, to load more the front, and also to go more down in the corners.
"That is not so much my style. Normally I don’t go elbow down. But now I saw that in some points of the track it's important to go down to load more the bike and also to pick it up faster on the exit."
Team-mate and fellow Moto2 rookie Philipp Oettl is also trying to lean off the bike more than in Moto3.
"It's been very interesting. Something new to ride such a powerful bike. In the past I was just riding Moto3 and a Moto2 Honda once," Oettl said.
"The riding style is quite different. You need to lean off the bike quite a lot. But this affects also the riding quite a lot. It's fun. I'm learning all the time.
"In Moto3, if you move on the bike it affects really hard the motorbike, but here in Moto2 you can move quite a lot because it's heavier.
"I think the main concern now is the corner entry, to prepare the bike for the exit. So braking is critical, also with the sliding, you slide more [on braking] with the Moto2 but I like this kind of sliding."
Although the Moto2 bike is less sensitive to movement, the German has found that the less he tries to force the machine around, the better the lap time.
"You need to ride the bike a little more calm, relaxed, to get a good lap time. Sometimes I feel I'm just rolling around but the lap times drop and drop," Oettl said.
"So it's surprising, when you start to push and you are slow. That's very difficult to understand because if you put more effort but the lap time is slower. But you need to find a good balance between pushing and keeping it rolling."
Bezzecchi has experience of a 600cc machine from training with the VR46 Academy, but said the R6 road bike they normally use had more in common with Moto3.
"It helped for the weight of the Moto2 bike, but for the riding style and the characteristics of the engine and torque, the R6 is more similar to Moto3, very smooth," the Italian explained.
"This [Moto2] bike is very aggressive from the initial touch to full power, the torque is very strong compared to the R6. The R6 only goes fast at the end, 12,000rpm. So Moto2 is completely different."
Oettl currently isn't sure which kind of training will be best suited to the new Moto2 class.
"First I need to have some more impressions of how the Moto2 behaves. But maybe I'll ride some heavier bikes in the winter and also try to adapt to this kind of riding style on the supermoto especially.
"I'll try to improve myself and get used to this kind of hanging off the bike, because it's much more than Moto3."
For Bezzecchi, like many of the KTM Moto2 riders, the main set-up issue at Jerez was chatter, the bike vibrating up and down on corner entry.
"Sometimes it's better, sometimes worse, but in the end of braking I have always the same problem… many chattering. And this is strange because it doesn’t go away.
"Last year with Moto3 we had chattering at the beginning, especially in the winter tests, like this year, but then we found a solution that was very important for all the times we had chattering again.
"We've tried many things but for the moment, no solution. But we still have a lot of time to work and also maybe my riding position means something, so there can be many reasons for it."
Lap times at the debut Triumph test were already under the official 600cc Moto2 lap records.
The opening 2019 test will be held back at Jerez in February.
