As the paddock ended after Monday’s Jerez test, held after the Spanish GP at the circuit, remarkable information emerged that Suzuki would be withdrawing from MotoGP at the end of the current season.
Motorsport.comOriol Puigdemont was the first to reportwhich I have confirmed by multiple sources in the MotoGP entry.
The team was notified on Monday morning, ahead of the test, with the official announcement expected on Tuesday.
Decisions are a financial matter. GPOne.com published a story citing sources stating that Suzuki’s decision was based on financial groundswith the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine depressing the global economy.
The Paddock rumor suggests that one of the things Livio Suppo has been included in Suzuki What needed to be done was to cut the budget if possible, but no one, not even Suppo, could have expected this decision, made by Suzuki’s board of directors.
The timing of the withdrawal is weird, at least from a sports perspective. The factory won the 2020 world title with Joan Mir, and has two of the most talented riders on the grid.
Alex Rins is currently 4th in the championship, 20 points behind leader Fabio Quartararo, while Joan Mir is 6th, 33 points ahead of Quartararo.
The Suzuki GSX-RR is one of the best bikes on the grid, especially since Suzuki engineers found more horsepower and more torque for the 2022 season.
Mir and Rins can be expected to join the title hunt in 2022, only to be eliminated at the end of the season.
Economic costs can also be high. Suzuki signed a five-year contract with Dorna last April, promising to compete in MotoGP from 2022 to 2026.
Dorna consolidated their contracts after Kawasaki pulled out in late 2008, during the global financial crisis that led to the collapse of Lehmann Brothers.
Dorna’s board of directors will meet to discuss how the withdrawal will be resolved, and a statement is certain to be made after Suzuki’s announcement.
Suzuki’s retreat is unlikely to see the network drop from 24 to 22 vehicles. Instead, these two positions will likely be filled by a group of Aprilia satellites.
Aprilia has been trying to convince some of the satellite teams to switch to Aprilia, as the Noale factory believes the time has come to expand their efforts and create a space where they can train young talent.
Suzuki’s withdrawal also opens the question of where Alex Rins and Joan Mir will go. Suzuki’s departure opened up the market for drivers, at least after Fabio Quartararo.
Mir will now almost certainly end up at Repsol Honda, the 2020 world champion replacing Pol Espargaro alongside Marc Marquez. Alex Rins would be a highly regarded racer, especially for a factory that makes a bike so much like Yamaha as Yamaha.
A press release is expected tomorrow. But this is a story that is likely to develop very quickly. There are many bends in the road.
Photo: MotoGP
