V4-powered MotoGP bikes have won 44 of the last 50 MotoGP races, a victory rate of 88 per cent, and topped the speed charts at 47 of the last 50 races, a success rate of 94 per cent.

How can this dominance be explained? Is it simply the fact that V4 engines make more horsepower? And if they do make more power, how do they do that?

Yes, they do make more horsepower. And mostly, it’s about the crankshaft. A V4’s crankshaft is shorter than an inline-four’s, so it’s stiffer and stronger.

It also creates less friction because it runs on three main bearings, not five, the minimum required by an inline-four. And with adjacent connecting rods on the same big-end journal it creates less rocking couple. Even better, a 90-degree vee has perfect primary balance.

There are also pumping losses, which is the power wasted in pumping air through the engine from intake to exhaust. Up to 300 litres of air per second flows through a 1000cc engine at 18,000rpm, and a V4 crankcase layout deals with that flow much better than an inline-four crankcase, so the V4 loses less power through pumping losses.

So, a stronger crankshaft, less vibration and better balance allow designers to push the engine harder for more revs and more horsepower, with the added advantage of fewer losses through friction and pumping.

Meanwhile, MotoGP inline-four designers must cope with crankshaft flex, crankcase flex, more friction, more vibration and greater pumping losses, which make the engine less able to produce more horsepower without problems. (Yamaha machines its YZR-M1’s crankcases from solid billets to reduce flex.)

The 90-degree configuration – used by Ducati in MotoGP since 2003 and by Honda since 2012 – has a further advantage. It allows designers to use a greater variety of unbalanced firing orders – big bang, long bang and so on – in their attempts to produce a more rider-friendly type of power and torque.

This explains why Ducati, Honda, KTM and now Aprilia use 90-degree V4s, instead of narrower-angle vees in MotoGP – it allows them to create more horsepower and a better kind of horsepower.