Good news!
MotoGP will return to full one-litre engines in 2012, at the end of the five-year interlude of 800cc prototypes.
And looser regulations will make it possible for production-based
engines to join the grids, alongside
factory prototypes. This has been confirmed by Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta, who revealed that the factories, through their MSMA association, had approved the idea in principle, after failing to come
up with any meaningful cost-saving proposal to counter the shrinking
800cc grids.
The current thinking is for fourcylinder one-litre engines, that can
come from any source: “Production crankcases and
crankshafts may not be good enough, but modifications will be allowed to convert them to full race engines," said Ezpeleta.