MO Survey: MotoGP Winglets, The Future Or An Abomination?

Evans Brasfield
by Evans Brasfield
<p>The kiss.</p>

For the longest time Ducati was the only brand with winglets on their MotoGP bikes, but now they’re popping up like mushrooms. Yamaha‘s machinery has been sporting them most of this season, and now Honda just tested six, yes six of them, on Marquez’ bike in the Jerez test that took place yesterday.

Additionally, the Grand Prix Commission is preparing to vote on a proposal regulating aerodynamic devices.

So, with all this in mind, MO-faithful, are winglets the future of MotoGP aerodynamic technology, or are they like chicken nuggets, an abomination, conceived by engineers needing to justify their existence and foisted on a trusting public, while having no natural place on a MotoGP bike?

Evans Brasfield
Evans Brasfield

Like most of the best happenings in his life, Evans stumbled into his motojournalism career. While on his way to a planned life in academia, he applied for a job at a motorcycle magazine, thinking he’d get the opportunity to write some freelance articles. Instead, he was offered a full-time job in which he discovered he could actually get paid to ride other people’s motorcycles – and he’s never looked back. Over the 25 years he’s been in the motorcycle industry, Evans has written two books, 101 Sportbike Performance Projects and How to Modify Your Metric Cruiser, and has ridden just about every production motorcycle manufactured. Evans has a deep love of motorcycles and believes they are a force for good in the world.

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  • Rick Vera Rick Vera on May 02, 2016

    Where's the option to vote "I don't have enough information to have an opinion worth a damn?" That's me.

    Do we have any empirical data stating its effectiveness? If so and it is indeed effective, what are the boundary conditions of its effectiveness, like speed, roll/pitch, etc., and the extent of its effectiveness, either increasing newtons of downforce or decreasing the coefficient of drag?

    I'd like to see Dorna Sports and Ecclestone alike return to a modern interpretation of the old FIA Group 7 philosophy. Simply give them a cuboid in which the vehicle must fit, denote the amount of tires, a max CO2 output to be relevant in today's time, and a price cap so it's not a "the richest team wins!" scenario, and let them have at it! I'd be all on board with that.

  • Barry_Allen Barry_Allen on May 04, 2016

    Watching the race on BT Sport on the 24th, the announcers mentioned that winglets are BANNED next year for Moto2 and Moto3. They will probably ban them in MotoGP as well for "safety reasons." It's bad enough to have someone fling a motorcycle at you on the track without the bike having a set of Veg-O-Matic blades sprouting from the front of it.

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