Roberts sees 700cc future

Kenny Roberts believes that the MotoGP world championship will see a further capacity reduction in the future, with four-stroke 700s or 600s the most likely step.

On the eve of the new 800cc era that gets underway in Qatar next week, the American legend told MCN: “If power to weight stays the same then 800s will be OK but if you back off the weight then down the road you’ll probably be looking at around 700 or 600cc. They’d still go round the racetrack faster depending on the power to weight. If you can back off the weight then that makes a big difference.”

Roberts added that he hasn’t been surprised by the blistering early pace set by the new generation 800cc machines, which have already broken 990cc lap records at most tracks in winter testing.

The triple world champion told us: “Every year is going to get faster. The electronics are going to get better, rider aids are going to get better so we haven’t even scratched the surface on that in my opinion. The 800s don’t have the tremendous torque and last year we were taking power out of it rather than putting it in. In that
respect it was a good idea to go to 800s because you won’t have to spend so much time taking horsepower out, although you will eventually to go round the track faster.”