Engine allocation update

Four races into the season and the engine allocation is starting to get interesting. Marc Marquez has lost one engine, speaking at Jerez the world champion admitted that the engine that failed at COTA in qualifying was no longer in his rotation, and with only five engines available for the season the Spaniard now has very little margin for error in terms of engine reliability. On the other side of the Repsol Honda garage Dani Pedrosa will be in much stronger form with the former 125 and 250cc champion having seen Hiro Aoyama use only two engines leaving three unused for the remaining 14 races.

At Yamaha Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo are on different engine strategies with Rossi having shared the majority of his use, two races on each engine, on two engines with a third opened in practice. Lorenzo has three completed races on one engine and has used one less engine than Rossi thus far. Over the last few years we’ve seen that the engine allocation is not typically a major problem for manufacturers unless there is a reliability issue early in their cycle.

In the satellite teams Scott Redding, Cal Crutchlow, Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro have three unused engines and are in a strong position at the moment. The Factory Option teams-Ducati, Suzuki and Aprilia-have 12 engines available throughout the year Iannone has lost one engine. In the Open class, which also have 12 engines available, only Stefan Bradl has lost one from his allocation.