Moto2 championship in 2027 entirely on ethanol?

You know the drill: the types of gasoline you can fill up at the pump says E5 or E10. The more expensive super is usually E5 and E10 is listed with the commonly used Euro gasoline. These are fuels with 5% or 10% bioethanol blended in, respectively. Which is renewable and therefore carbon neutral. It’s all a matter of legally imposed emission controls.

Triump engine supplier for Moto2

The racing world also deals with these types of gasoline. There is nothing wrong with that, but bioethanol has a lower so-called calorific value. In short, you get less power from this fuel. That’s exactly something you don’t want on a race bike. Triumph, as purveyor of the three-cylinder 765cc engines for Moto2, knows this better than anyone. The same engine as in the Triumph Street Triple RS, but with racing specifications.

E40 gasoline in 2024 and E100 gasoline in 2027

Triumph has now put its research department at the Hinckley, England, plant to work researching gasoline with an even greater proportion of bioethanol. That involves E40 with thus 40% blending and even E100 as a full bioethanol fuel. In fact, the organizer of Moto2, Moto3 and also MotoGP, the company Dorna, wants to switch to E40 in 2024 and to E100 in 2027.

Performance maintained with bioethanol

“As the sole engine supplier to Moto2 competition, Triumph is in the best position to ensure that the new fuel standard maintains competitive levels. Testing should ensure that the torquey Triple engines maintain their performance.”

Using knowledge for road bikes

Triumph is exploiting the knowledge gained for road bikes. So you can count on the three-cylinders to burn bioethanol without any problems within a few years. But also, of course, the current E5 and E10 gasoline, because it will be some time before E40 or even E100 will be the only fuel available at the pump.