The only change already announced for 2027 is the move to 100% ‘non-fossil origin’ fuel, rising from 40% 🅠🎐in 2024.

Other 🔜rumoured alternations are the removal of ride height/holeshot devices and some further limits on aerodyꦿnamics.

But with no desire for any major overhaul of the engine re🥀gulations, other ideas would be needed to have a meaningful impact on the record-breaking top speeds and lap ti🤡mes.

Scott Smart, World Superbike technical director from 2014-2022 an꧑d now a director of technology for Dorna and consultant for MSVR in BSB, believes one of the answers is to ‘redefine’ tyre performance.

Speaking on this week’s mahbx.com MotoGP podcast, Smart explained: “Obviously Moto💦GP tried going to 800cc machines in the past, but the cost was quite incredible and it produced another set of problems.

“But there are a few very quick bold strokes you can do to make things slower, and ge▨nerally that's to reduce massively the tyre performance.

“This is very much my opinion - not fro♔m Dorna or FIM or anybody else - but tyre performance needs to be redefined. Because right now ‘tyre performance’ means what?”

“Grip, and more of it!” answere🥀d former grand prix rider and British champion Keith Huewen.

“Exactly,” continued Smart. “But for me, tyre performance can also mean how long the tyre lasts while giv♐ing a certain amount of grip. If you could triple the life of the tyre, whilst still giving 90% of its current maximum grip, I would say that's actual♚ly improved its performance.

“We just need a bit of a mental shift because bike racing is still absolutely stuck 𒁏in going faster, faster, faster. And that's what motorsport is about. But for example, in BSB, people ar♉e sometimes worried about Superstock being as fast as Superbike.

“But nobody stands at the side of the track and goes, ‘wow, that Superstock bike was only 0.3 of a second a lap slower. That's too close’. You go: ‘Wow. Did you see that?’ Beca🌠use the reality is we're interes𒉰ted in really exciting racing.

“You don't see two secon🃏ds per lap difference when you watch on television. So we can massively reduce the mid-corner speed.

“Some of the most fantastic 500cc races from the ‘90s were when those things had 160 horsepower and no grip. The racing was phenomenal. And that's wh🐠at we want. We don't necessarily need to find that last ❀one second a lap.

“So we could redefine our performance goals and massively re🍸duce the consumption in tyres. For example, only have a few sets per weekend, but they've got to haveౠ incredible tyre life and the net effect immediately is that there's going to be less available grip.

“The lap times will slowly come back anyway [wit🎐h technical improvements by the manufacturers] but you’d get yourself 3, 5, 7 years before you need to slow it all down again.

“Also, from my point of view, managing the quantit🌱y of fuel flow, and the quality 🌞of fuel is another area that can be looked at. If we reduce certain components, it gives the engineers a challenge.

“In top-level motoܫrbike racing, MotoGP or World Superbikes, a lot of the fund✅ing comes from the R&D side of the company.

“So they need to be able to justify why they're sending engineers around the world - not just to 🧜get suntans! - but to actually provide information that's♔ useful, gets passed back into the company and ultimately rolled into the street bikes.

“There༒ are a couple of ways of slowing MotoGP down. But the politics at the moment are quite difficult and making [technical] decisions quickly is getting harder than ever... And no one likes change!”

Asked about the need to strike a ba✱l🐬ance between road relevance and encouraging prototype innovation in the premier class, Smart replied:

“You can see it in a couple of ways. I think it's really interesting to develop the new tech, but then once it becomes u🍌biquitous, so the knowledge has gone back into the company, which is the net goal, and it doesn’t add anything to the racing then potentially you say ‘OK, we don't need it in racing anymore, move on to 🐼the next thing’.

“And there will ꦐbe the next thing and the next thing... All the stuff that we don't think of that Gigi [Dall’Igna] kind of imagines at 4:00am in the morning!”

On the🎃 spec🌺ific topic of ride-height devices, likely to be removed due to a lack of road relevance and the fact all manufacturers now have them, Smart said:

“On 🙈the question of whether they've got an application on the road or not? Actually, potentially there are some knock-on effects that you don't think about.

“If a manufacturer has got that knowledge of how to change the height of a bike with♎out adversely affecting other things, it can make a big trail [Adventure] bike, for example, much more acces♉sible to a small person when they're riding in town.

“Then you can slip the switch when y🍸ou are out on the trails and the bike can return♕ to its normal ride height. So there are actually some interesting applications of this stuff.

“But maybe it𒊎's time has been done in MotoGP because once everybody has it💎, and everyone is getting the same benefit from it, it can go at that point because everybody has the same thing removed.

“It's a very, very f🔯ine line to tread. But if everyone has it, if the🅷y are not giving anything to the entertainment of our sport and costing money, then it's not necessarily particularly useful to keep.”

Download Episode 90 at the following links...

New podcasts available each week.