Engine restrictions ‘daunting’ says Jerry Burgess

Valentino Rossi’s legendary crew chief Jerry Burgess has admitted planning to use only six engines for the entire 2010 MotoGP world championship is a ‘daunting task’.

Under cost-cutting measures for next season, Rossi and his premier class rivals will only be able to use six engines for the 18-round series.

Not only does the new rule present a massive challenge to Japanese engineers, with engine life needing to be at doubled to at least 1500 miles, but Aussie Burgess reckons it creates a major planning headache too.

“The only thing I find difficult with the rule is that I have to be planning the last race in Valencia before is tart the first race of the season and never before have I had to look at the end of the season before the first race and that I find a daunting task.

“It means that you will be trying to bank an engine, use some miles on something else, so that you have engine in the bank if you need a fresh engine.”

Burgess, who has masterminded all of Rossi’s seven MotoGP world titles, said the key target for engineers in 2010 would be extracting as much horsepower as possible out of a motor without sacrificing reliability.

He added: “The challenge for the engineers is make an engine for top horsepower over three races.

“There is no issue if we can maintain performance and reliability over three races, but if we get better power when we put in a fresh engine, there is an optimum engine performance and then it tapers off.”