Technical issues: KTM seeks permission to open the engines

– At the Barcelona Grand Prix in mid-May, Pedro Acosta’s KTM stalled during acceleration, causing the rear-end collision and serious crash of Alex Marquez.

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Since then, the engineers of the Austrian brand have been working to find out the cause of this failure. It was not the only problem, as Acosta stalled four more times at the following race weekends.

Now KTM has asked the other members of the manufacturers’ association MSMA for permission to open the engines. Yamaha, for example, did this in the 2020 season for safety reasons.

In order to open the engines, approval from all manufacturers is required. KTM therefore needs permission from Honda, Yamaha, Ducati, and Aprilia. The latter is apparently the only one who has already given their consent.

KTM motorsport chief Pit Beirer confirmed last Sunday at the Sachsenring that “something is wrong” with the engines, which can cause the motorcycle to suddenly stall on the track.

“The situation is not easy because there is something in our engines, a faulty part that we have to buy in, which is not okay,” said Beirer on Sky Italy. “We know that this risk still exists in some engines.”

“We have now taken other engines to avoid this risk, but there is a problem that we need to solve because there is an engine that cannot be used for safety reasons either.”

“We have to use the summer break for that.” He added: “I want to thank Fabiano Sterlacchini and Massimo Rivola from Aprilia, who are helping us.” This made it clear that Aprilia has already signaled support.

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According to regulations, the engines of Ducati, Aprilia, KTM, and Honda were sealed at the start of the season. Only Yamaha has been allowed to work on the engines since the start of the season because Yamaha is in concession group D.

However, Yamaha will not use a new 1,000 cc V4 engine for the rest of the season. The focus is entirely on the new 850cc motorcycle for the coming year.

At KTM, the component responsible for the problem has apparently been identified, but as Beirer explained on Sky Italy, there are still engines where the same defect could occur.

To be able to replace this component in the already available engines, the approval of the other four manufacturers is required. Per season, manufacturers in concession group C are only allowed to use eight engines per rider.

Engines can be examined at the factory, but it is forbidden to break the seals and open the engines. Manufacturers may only open an engine in the presence of an IRTA technician.

As Motorsport.com Spain, a sister platform of Motorsport-Total.com, has learned, several meetings on this topic took place at the Sachsenring, the last one on Sunday afternoon.

In 2020, Yamaha asked for permission to open its engines. At that time, Yamaha received approval from the other manufacturers. Valves from a supplier caused problems back then because the dimensions had been changed by a minimal fraction, which caused issues.

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