The Engine Withdrawl Scenario at MotoGP

Three engines have been pulled from LCR Honda riders Takaaki Nakagami and Alex Marquez following 11 of this year’s 20 MotoGP World Championship events.

Given that no other competitors have pulled more than one engine from usage thus far this season and that Nakagami/Marquez did not have any engines taken out of use at the same point (round 11) of 2021, it stands out as the biggest outlier.

At round seven (Le Mans), both of the two engines Nakagami used to begin the season in Qatar were withdrawn. A third engine, which had been introduced in France, was then used on the actual race day at Assen. That amounts to 5–6 rounds of use for each engine, which is a healthy number, however, it is rare to then officially retire the engines.

Assen race day saw the debut of one of Nakagami’s current engines, while the other had completed five laps.

Teammate Marquez had three engines pulled from his car: one on Saturday in Austin (round 4), one on Sunday in Le Mans (round 5), and a third (from Qatar) on Friday in Assen. He has completed 5.5 and 3.5 rounds with his current engines.

Although the cause of the large number of “withdrawn” cases at LCR is unknown, accident damage is believed to be one contributing factor.

Since Pol Espargaro and Marc Marquez/Stefan Bradl of the Repsol Honda team, who use the identical engine specifications as LCR, have only “lost” one engine, it seems improbable that there is a design reliability problem. Espargaro did continue to use one of his Qatar engines throughout Friday’s practice in the Netherlands

The good news for the LCR riders is that their overall engine use of 5 out of 7 equals that of the bulk of the grid, even though they only presently have two engines available and are unable to retrieve any of the three that were withdrawn.

Fabio Quartararo, the reigning Yamaha champion and the current leader in the championship, is one of the 13 riders whose engines have not yet been removed this season.

Aleix Espargaro, the closest competitor, is using engine number five as well, although one has been removed. However, Espargaro still has access to four additional new engines because of Aprilia’s technological compromises.

In contrast to the other manufacturers, those Aprilia engines that have not yet been utilised might also have an updated design, which is a helpful advantage as Espargaro tries to narrow the 21-point difference to Quartararo.

Raul Fernandez, a rookie with Tech3 KTM who was injured and missed all of Jerez and most of the Portimao weekend, has utilised the fewest engines thus far, only 3 of 7.