New manufacturers welcome: Displacement increase for the Superbike World Championship from 2030!

The trend towards motorcycles with larger engine capacities has been evident for many years. In the Supersport World Championship, only Honda still competes with a classic 600 cc in-line four-cylinder engine; all other manufacturers field machines with capacities of up to 955 cc.

In the Superbike class, too, some manufacturers have long since moved away from the traditional 1,000 cc, led by the Italians. The standard road version of the Ducati Panigale V4 has a 1,103 cc engine, whilst the Aprilia RSV4 has a 1,099 cc engine. Neither may be used in the Superbike World Championship because the current maximum displacement for four-cylinder engines is 1,000 cc – which is why Ducati has built the special V4R model.

From the 2030 season onwards, new rules will apply, allowing manufacturers to field bikes with four-cylinder engines of up to 1,200 cc! This was agreed between the manufacturers, promoter Liberty and the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM), and announced on 31 July.

The fact that the new rule will not come into force for another three years is due to business and production-related factors. It takes at least two years from the time a manufacturer decides to build a new motorbike until it is actually produced. Three to five years is a more realistic timeframe, as intensive market analyses are carried out beforehand to ensure the resulting product has the greatest possible sales potential.

Promoter Liberty (formerly Dorna) hopes that the increase in engine capacity will attract new manufacturers, foremost among them Aprilia. The Noale-based brand, currently leading the MotoGP World Championship with Jorge Martin, competes in various classes but withdrew from the World Superbike Championship after the 2018 season. One of the reasons for this was that the engine capacity of the RSV4 – with which Max Biaggi won the Superbike World Championship in 2010 and 2012, and Sylvain Guintoli in 2014 – was first increased from 999 to 1077 and then to 1099 cc. Aprilia was never prepared to build a special 1000 cc model solely for the Superbike World Championship, as no market was identified for it.