The debate on the advantages and disadvantages between the four-cylinder engine and its V4 counterpart is not new and is not about to die down. At least as long as Yamaha, the last MotoGP manufacturer to remain faithful to online mechanics, sticks to this position and in a paddock that Suzuki has deserted. Because the rest of the board is V-shaped. At KTM including, where the engine design engineer at KTM Factory Racing can't believe what the Japanese at Iwata are still able to get out of their engine architecture...
This is a remark which is worth a compliment, but which deserves attention in the light of a search for power and top speed undertaken by Yamaha with the validated support of the European Luca Marmorini. Because if we follow its author well Kurt Trieb, the man of mechanical art at KTM, there is normally only one decent path to follow in MotoGP to find success: “ from my experience, I can say that for the application in MotoGP, the V4 is the right choice purely from an engine point of view ". A conviction which generates this admiration towards those who have chosen the other architecture: “ I find it impressive what my colleagues get from online engines ».
« If we had gone with an in-line engine from KTM, we would have had difficulty«
The engineer goes even further: “ we must be very clear: if we had started with such an in-line engine at KTM, we would have had difficulty. It's simply incredible that in motorcycling Rossi, Lorenzo and Quartararo with the Yamaha inline four were often as fast as Marc Marquez with a V4 machine or a Ducati and in recent years. Suzuki has also been so competitive ».
And in fact, Suzuki won the MotoGP world championship in 2020 with Joan mir. And alex rins won two of the last three races in 2022 with the GSX-RR… So? So we must also face the fact that Kurt Trieb thus defines speedweek : " these different concepts often all arrive at the same level ».
By the way, if the inline four becomes an exception, KTM also has its particularity in terms of setting. We will indeed remember that the Austrian brand has remained faithful to its vision of the tubular steel frame, while the standard on the starting grid is aluminum. A choice which has brought the Austrian firm seven victories since its involvement in open MotoGP in 2017. As such, keeping its DNA is also a driving force in making…
