The FiM has Neutered the Stark for WSX

[Johnny Depp]

FIM WSX ·​

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The FIM have today confirmed the official regulations that will allow Stark Future and the electric Stark VARG MX 1.2 to line up against traditional combustion bikes in the 2025 World Supercross Championship.
With last week’s announcement of Stark Future joining the starting gate as the first fully electric race team in a World Championship supercross series, the technical regulations now confirm how we’re setting the bar for fair and safe competition.
Read the full story here: World Supercross Championship 2025 Rider Lineup
Key Things You Need To Know:
Stark Future's entry is fully approved by the FIM making them the first all-electric team to enter an official world championship supercross series.
The team will be headquartered in Barcelona, Span.
The Stark VARG is eligible for both SX1 (54kW max power) and SX2 (44kW max power). Once the bike is entered, it will remain locked into its category for the entire event.
Stark Future has previously raced across European and World championships including the French Supercross Series, British Arenacross, and FIM SuperEnduro World Championship.
Each Stark VARG has 36 built-in sensors. These, combined with sensors on the rider, can be integrated into the World Supercross Championship broadcast feed.

 

[Erwin P]

So 72 and 60 hp. That should be adequate.
Since that power comes at quite high speeds they could opt to use the 80hp curve but just flattened at the end. However i don't think they need that power anyways.

 

[Beagle]

Yeah it's not neutered, quite the contrary.
Up to now, in the dozens of championships where the Varg is raced, it's limited at 60 hp for MX1/SX1 (450s) and 48 hp for MX2/SX2 (250s).
Now without explanation the FIM have surprisingly raised this to 73 hp and 60 hp.
I'll copy paste something I had put in the AMA thread, it's better to have a separate WSX thread

 

[Beagle]

A few surprises in technical regulations for WSX.

Electrics are limited to 73 hp (54 kW) for SX1 and 60 hp (44 kW) for SX2.

FIM says they've been conducting lots of tests, on and off track, sure to include Dyno testing but that's quite a change from current limitations of 60 hp and 48 hp applied in all other championships.

Minimum weight is 117 kg (99 kg for 450s).

Maximum torque might be restricted at a later stage.

Just like they did in Superenduro, FIM might adjust the technical regulations (so-called EOT-BOP, Equivalence Of Technologies - Balance Of Performance) after every round.

Electric bikes to compete in the FIM World Supercross Championship

The FIM is pleased to announce that electric bikes are allowed to line up against traditional combustion bikes in the 2025 FIM World Supercross Championship and publishes the relevant sporting and technical regulations.

www.fim-moto.com

 

[Beagle]

There will be 4 Stark riders, officially confirmed are Zaragoza in SX1 and Hicks in SX2, they have a lot of experience on the bike and should surprise a few.

For the other 2 seats, Vince Friese is heavily rumoured for SX1 (top10 AMA SX rider, reigning AMA AX champion) and maybe Lance Kobusch in SX2 (16th in SX2 east this year).

If the latter 2 riders are kinda discovering the bike, they will need some time to adapt their riding but Zaragoza and Hicks are more than ready to deliver.

 

[Beagle]

BTW, Zaragoza and Friese are racing Fastcross in Italy next week, we'll see what bike Friese is on.

 

[Theo]

In the Buenos Aires GP, Michael Hicks has set faster times in the superpole of the SX2 than the Stark riders in the qualifying of SX1, who haven't made it to superpole:

Race Day Live - FIM World Supercross Championship

 

[Beagle]

In the Buenos Aires GP, Michael Hicks has set faster times in the superpole of the SX2 than the Stark riders in the qualifying of SX1, who haven't made it to superpole:

Race Day Live - FIM World Supercross Championship

Oh yes Hicks can make Stark proud.
Friese must be hurt or injured, hesyveey far off the pace, Zaragoza a bit disappointing.

Weirdly, apparently the FIM prevented Stark riders from using the left hand rear brake.

 

[Beagle]

Disappointing WSX start for the Stark boys, Friese likely injured, Zaragoza struggled to stay in the first half.

I guess Kobusch needs to learn a bit, Hicks is the most promising, he could step on that podium in the next races.

And with every WSX passing race, it will become even more ridiculous for the AMA to pretend that it's not safe to race electrics against ICE.

Zaragoza 10/15/14 (15th OA)
Friese DNF/DNF/DNS (16th OA)

Hicks 10/9/7 (9th OA)
Kobusch 12/12/12 (12th OA)

 

[Julo EX]

They are struggling a lot in the whoops..

 

[Beagle]

They are struggling a lot in the whoops..

As always it's a weak point for Stark, likely due to lack of clutch, it's been well explained by Josh Hill.

Hicks still bagged 2nd in superpole though so there's potential.

 

[Theo]

Some thoughts:
1- in motocorss and supercross, the rider matters more than in other motorsports and Roczen hasn't been so dominant just thanks to that Suzuki. No offence to Stark's riders, but AFAIK, albeit being very skilled, they can't be competitive with riders like Roczen or Deegan and you can't blame the Varg for that. Just to calrify that podium in SX1 is very unlikely. I don't know the riders so well to tell how they are supposed to be ranked agaisnt the others, but an AI thinks that Zaragoza has done unusually well compared to what he achieved in his career with ICEs. Firese muct have had special problems like an injury.
Now, talking about electric dirtbikes, maybe some years ago we could have suspected that they would have changed this like 4 strokes did with 2 strokes, but now I personally think that electric dirtbikes are still not always necessarily the fastest bikes. The difference is that the ICEs don't have much room for improvement, while EVs do and they improve much faster. IMO probably it will happen sooner or later and we are close, just still not now.
2- The fact that Hicks has been faster in SX2 makes me suspecting that in SX1 the power was too much to handle. I don't know how much Stark has been allowed to adjust the power curve: for example if, because of some rules, they had to decide how to limit the power in practice and then the setting was locked for the rest of the event, they may have chosen too much power; just a supposition.
3- Following the live timing a bit, it seemed to me that they started well but then ended up losing positions: maybe they perform better in starts.
4- Last and most important comment: in racing luck matters a lot, too and I suspect that this time Stark's team had little luck. Remember when Stark won the final of the AX World Tour in Abu Dhabi? Props to the team, but do you think they would have won anyways if that race were not restarted aftrer a red flag and if Wilson hadn't injured himself after the second start? Just like they somehow managed to stay calm and sharp when they unexpectedly had the right chance to win, this time they probably got unlucky and then discouraged. With Abu Dhabi I admitted that they had good luck and this time I would feel mean to say that probably they didn't have bad luck. You know how it works, a little mistake of another rider slows you down and you end up losing seconds, it's racing. Let's see what happens in the next rounds.

 

[Beagle]

Yes agreed mostly, starts are an advantage for electrics so that's partly why they tend to go backwards, they can get in front of faster riders at the start.

When they lock power they lock the max for a set duration, they can still adjust maps and go up or down as long as it's under the set limit. They used to run lower than 60 hp limit in AX and France SX the past year, not sure about now.

Zaragoza and Hicks have the measure of Soubeyras and Wilson in AX UK so in WSX they should be able to fight around top6 in SX1 and podium in SX2.
Hicks is leading France SX tour SX2 championship, level is not AMA but it's still competitive.

Regarding competitiveness in SX1 vs SX2 actually I believe they're more successful in SX2 simply because the level is not quite the same. But technically, the heavier bike is likely more of an hindrance with the limited power in SX2 compared to SX1 (obviously Varg weight is the same in both categories). And their overall competitiveness will vary depending on tracks, if they tend to reward more power or light weight (and how hard the whoops are).

 

[Theo]

Regarding competitiveness in SX1 vs SX2 actually I believe they're more successful in SX2 simply because the level is not quite the same. But technically, the heavier bike is likely more of an hindrance with the limited power in SX2 compared to SX1 (obviously Varg weight is the same in both categories). And their overall competitiveness will vary depending on tracks, if they tend to reward more power or light weight (and how hard the whoops are).

Surely the level is lower in SX2, but what I meant is that Hicks achieved better laptimes even though he could use less power.

 

[Beagle]

Surely the level is lower in SX2, but what I meant is that Hicks achieved better laptimes even though he could use less power.

I do think that Hicks is their best rider at the moment, like when he and Zaragoza were racing AX UK in Abu Dhabi (SX1 only) he was faster.

Even in SX tour where he's racing SX2 and Zaragoza is in SX1, he's often as fast or faster.

 

[Johnny Depp]

It’s almost better that Stark “fit in” rather than be a front runner right away. The villain reputation is far less as the years have gone on, but it’s still there with plenty of people only wanting them in a separate class.

 

[Beagle]

Hicks has been penalized in superpole and race 2 for

"Exceeding the maximum energy tolerance per lap"

Electric bikes must be fitted with FIM data logger and FIM own voltage and current sensors, FIM technical inspectors can request and review the data at any moment during the competition.

After re-reading the Equivalence Of Technologies/Balance Of Performance document by the FIM that can be found here

Electric bikes to compete in the FIM World Supercross Championship

The FIM is pleased to announce that electric bikes are allowed to line up against traditional combustion bikes in the 2025 FIM World Supercross Championship and publishes the relevant sporting and technical regulations.

www.fim-moto.com

I'm pretty sure the penalty is about this:

"A 0,1KJ per lap tolerance is permissible beyond any above power limits excursions within the lap. Exceeding the tolerances will be penalised at the sole discretion of the FIM Technical Director."

This is about power spikes that might happen over a jump, whoops or whatever situation likely involving air time, without any resistance to the rear wheel, the power delivered might suddenly increase before the software takes control and cuts it, that's a spike.

A lap at Buenos Aires was about 55 s.
An energy of 0.1 kJ for a time of 55 s is equal to a power of 1.8 W (P=E/t), about 0.002 hp.

So that's like having 0.002 extra hp during the entire lap.

Obviously it's an average over spikes so it all depends on the duration of said spikes. For instance Hicks would also go over the tolerance by having on every lap one 0.5 s spike of 0.2 hp, or five 0.1 s spikes of 0.2 hp, or even, let's get crazy, one 0.1 s spike of 1 hp, talk about going overdrive!

If that's really all here is to it (which is not confirmed), it sounds like the FIM is doing its job really well, monitoring things precisely, and that Stark could easily fix that by lowering their hp limit by a smidge.

The fact that it might not be from a setting but just some spikes depending on riding, track conditions, air time and so on seems consistent with the fact this was only observed for some of the sessions/races.

 

[Johnny Depp]

No such thing as bad publicity. How many other bikes need to be neutered with power, weight, wheelbase and brakes to let the other bikes keep it fair?
IMO Open class non production rules is the way.