Cost cutting: 2020 bikes in 2021?

When the coronavirus eventually passes, the MotoGP World Championship will be faced with a number of issues.

The most immediate will be to improvise a calendar 'worthy' of the world championship title for the three grand prix classes, in the limited time available.

The second will be to help teams and manufacturers weather the financial storm in the face of a substantial loss of earnings.

Commercial rights holder Dorna Sports may well be able to hand extra support to the Independent teams, while for manufacturers the emphasis will likely be on cost-cutting measures.

Part of the solution to reduce costs, as proposed by MotoGP, Moto2, Moto3 and MotoE team boss Fausto Gresini in the pages of La Gazzetta dello Sport, is to "use 2020 motorcycles in 2021."

Not only would it slash development budgets, but also solve the looming issue of what looks set to be a very short 'winter break' between the end of the 2020 season (perhaps as late as January) and start of 2021 (early March).

But how might it be done?

Gresini appeared to be referring mainly to the Moto3 and Moto2 classes, where machine development is already highly regulated during the season.

Meanwhile, in the MotoGP class, engine design is frozen and just one fairing update allowed once racing begins.

So why not merge the 2020 and 2021 seasons into a single continuous world championship from a technical development point of view?

In the case of MotoGP, non-engine or aero parts could therefore still be updated at will across both seasons, but engine design would remain frozen until the end of 2021 (KTM and Aprilia are already exempt as concession teams). Fairing evolution could also be halted after the second 2020 update, or with one further version allowed for 2021.

“Of course I'm worried," Gresini said of the financial situation. "We will lose opportunities, sponsors, jobs. It will be important to know how to rebuild. The crisis will teach us to think and do things differently."