The Moto2 category is by far the most regulated of the Grands Prix; single engine, single electronics, single gasoline and single oil. All that remains is the cycle parts so that engineers can give free rein to their inventive spirit and measure themselves against the competition.
But if we saw a proliferation of chassis in the years 2010/2012, it is clear that Kalex is today not far from imposing a sort of monopoly, with the excesses that this entails and which we are going to talk about …
Why the Kalex hegemony and what are the abuses?
At the birth of the category, in 2010, making a Moto2 chassis was not very complicated; it was enough to take the dimensions of the Honda frame and transpose them, either on frames machined from the mass, or on tubular frames, in aluminum or steel…
Many of them have tried it, and perhaps the following names still mean something to you; ICP, Force 210, AJR, FTR, Harris, Moriwaki, TSR, MZ, Inmotec, Arbizu, RSV, MG Competition, Suter, etc.
Unfortunately, four years later, only three manufacturers remain in the running, Tech3, SpeedUp and Kalex with a virtual monopoly of the latter.
Suter, despite being world champion with Marc Marquez, also disappeared from the 2016 starting grid. The Swiss manufacturer partly paid for its total involvement with the young Spanish prodigy. Developing his chassis above all for the latter, Suter therefore went ever further to respond to the ever later corner entries of the number 93. The result was certainly a world champion chassis but one which the other drivers grew tired of, preferring him little by little the German Kalex, both more homogeneous and more constant whatever the circuit.
Little by little, we found the same quasi-monopoly situation that we had at the time of the 2-stroke with Aprilia, with all its perverse effects.
At the forefront of these, the fashion effect; all pilots now want a Kalex, whether they are fine blades or second knives. Obviously, the former are served first and the latter last, if at all.
To SpeedUp et Tech3, it is very difficult to attract drivers capable of competing in the Top 10 regularly in the dry, to such an extent that the French team, after 7 years of effort, is now wondering about a possible move to the manufacturer German, to the great despair ofHervé Poncharal: “On a fait une victoire avec Takahashi et plusieurs podiums sur les trois premières années. Mais depuis, c’est difficile et on se pose la question de savoir si ça ne vaudrait pas plus le coup d’acheter des Kalex comme tout le monde, auquel cas on aurait une possibilité de choix de pilotes beaucoup plus large. Nous sommes dans une phase de réflexion mais ce serait vraiment la mort dans l’âme et une sorte d’aveu d’échec, le fait qu’on n’arrive pas à trouver des gens prêts à relever des challenges et se battre dans cette catégorie uniformisée. Ktm va arriver en Moto2 et ce sera très bien pour le championnat car ça va régénérer un peu de diversité, avec leur châssis tubulaire comme en Moto3 et MotoGP.”
SpeedUp, which fields 3 motorcycles, or 50% more than Tech3, and therefore collects more data than the French manufacturer, is doing a bit better, both in terms of riders and results, since everything is linked. At least for the moment…
Faced with these two courageous artisans, and especially since the (temporary?) elimination of Suter, Kalex takes full advantage of its quasi-monopoly position; développement extrêmement limité, à peine de quoi vendre de nouveaux châssis au moins chaque année (Pour rappel, Johann Zarco a été champion du monde en écrasant la catégorie en utilisant un “vieux” châssis 2014), interdiction de modifier quoi que ce soit sur la moto, y compris les éléments carrosserie en carbone, et même interdiction d’utiliser des copies de ces derniers… Les pièces d’origine sont obligatoires, avec le prix en découlant, exactement comme avec Aprilia en 125 et 250cc.
History repeats itself, and Kalex should remember it, because clouds are already appearing on the horizon in the Germanic sky...
To be continued.
