Suzuki and Dorna eventually agreed to the terms of the Japanese factory’s withdrawal from MotoGP.
In a press release issued today, Suzuki has officially announced that it will withdraw from the MotoGP championship at the end of the 2022 season and end the participation of the Suzuki Ecstar MotoGP team.
At the same time, they announced they would be withdrawing from official participation in the EWC Endurance World Championship, where they raced under the Yoshimura SERT Motul banner.
The announcement ends the surprising story of Suzuki’s MotoGP exit.
News appeared for the first time at the end of the MotoGP test at Jerez, on the Monday after the Spanish Grand Prix. It took almost two weeks for those rumors to come to fruition confirmed by an official press release says that negotiations have begun with Dorna about withdrawing.
Those talks have now been completed. Although the details have not been announced, it is likely that Suzuki will have to pay a large fine to terminate the contract.
Those penalties came when the factory contract was renewed in 2016, Dorna learned from when Kawasaki left MotoGP at the end of 2008 and Suzuki (for the first time) at the end of 2011.
Withdrawing from MotoGP also means the end of the Suzuki Ecstar team. Alex Rins signed with LCR Hondaand Joan Mir are close to reaching an agreement with Repsol Honda, a sign that the team is also breaking up.
Other team members are in the process of looking for work elsewhere. With funding for the team almost entirely provided by Suzuki, there was never an opportunity for the team to continue operating as an independent entity.
The withdrawal from the EWC Endurance Championship was a bit more of a surprise. Team Yoshimura SERT Motul is currently leading the FIM EWC chartand won many championships.
The reason Suzuki gave for withdrawing from both MotoGP and EWC was a shift in focus to sustainable transportation. However, the move is part of Suzuki’s larger shift away from the track.
The Japanese factory stopped supporting the Crescent Suzuki WorldSBK team at the end of 2015 and withdrew factory support from the MXGP at the end of 2017.
There are still Suzuki teams racing in BSB and MotoAmerica, but they are privately-run, distributor and dealer-supported operations, rather than a factory effort. In the press release, Suzuki promised to continue to support the national race through their network of distributors.
It’s clear, both from the press release and Suzuki’s previous actions in other series, that Suzuki doesn’t believe in the benefits of racing for their business plan.
Factories race for many reasons – marketing is arguably the biggest reason to race, but racing also provides a platform to do R&D and learn lessons that can be carried over to production. , as well as helping train engineers to think quickly and clearly about motorcycle dynamics – but none of them convinced Suzuki.
Whether this will have any direct impact on their motorcycle division remains to be seen. If it is necessary to move to the development of sustainable transport solutions, then Suzuki’s street bikes could also have consequences.
Photo: Suzuki Racing
