Dorna, the Grand Prix Commission and MSMA (the manufacturers association) have reached an agreement that will introduce new technical rules to MotoGP in 2019. The biggest change will affect the aerodynamic fairings teams are using on their bikes, and the second rule is to introduce a unified inertial platform and CAN connections.
As for the aerodynamic rules, the Grand Prix Commission decided to impose a maximum limit to the dimensions of the winglets and at the same time to forbid the teams to add or remove parts of the winglets from race to race.
This means that teams will start the season with a specified and approved fairing design, and they won’t be able to use a different one at least until they submit to approval a new set of fairings. They will be allowed to do so once per season.
The aerodynamic winglets will still be allowed to a certain point, but Technical Director Danny Aldridge will enforce stricter limits to the fairings design – we won’t be seeing the “Hammer shark” style fairing on the Ducati anymore -, and at the same time he will take into account what a specific manufacturer has done on this regard the season before. If the manufacturer or team presents a fairing that is completely different from what they had the year before, the Technical Director won’t allow that design.
As for the new unified inertial platform and CAN connections, this is the way the Grand Prix Commission found to limit each team way to find an edge over everyone using electronics.
The unified ECU from Magneti Marelli has been in use since 2014, and from 2016 every team has been using the same ECU software. But they still had the chance to use their own sensors and inertial platform, and that meant that each team was in fact taking advantage of the electronics package.
Now, not only the ECU software will be the same for everyone, but also the CAN connections (sensors included) and the inertial platform will also be the same for every team in MotoGP.
All these changes in the rules are meant to equalize even more the level between each team in MotoGP, and honestly, since the introduction of the single ECU and software we’ve been seeing an increase in competitiveness from non-factory teams who are now much closer to the top positions in every MotoGP race.