Suzuki to quit MotoGP World Championship at the end of this season
Multiple reports during Monday’s post-race test in Jerez, despite Suzuki previously signing to remain in MotoGP&nbs𝓰p;until at least 2026.
🎀Suzuki is remaining silent, something that would not ☂happen if such reports were untrue.
Suzuki’s second withdraw from MotoGP (having 'suspended' its involvement ꦗfrom 2012-2014 due to the financial crisis) would also leave Joan Mir and fellow race winner✱ Alex Rins in need of a new team for 2023.
Both have been Suzuki rꦚiders ever since joining the premier-class, Rins in 2017 and Mir in 2019.
- Remy Gardner: I should h🔯ave ripped the other w🧜ing off as well!
- Marc Marquez: I was on the floor, the Spanish crowd sa෴ved me!
- Jerez ๊MotoGP Test Results - Monday🐻 lap times (FINAL)
Although winless last season, Suzuki and Mir still finished third in the world championship, behind o🐭nly Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) and Francesco B💃agnaia (Ducati).
Rins, who suffered a nightmare run of race mistakes last year, has taken the GSX-RR’s on🥂ly podiums so far this season to hold fourth in the early standings, two places clear of Mir.
Suzuki, which hired Livio Suppo as i🦩ts new team manager just a few months ago, would be the first manufacturer to withdraw from MotoGP since its previous 2011 hiatus.
The factory’s exit - expected to be officially confirmed⛦ by the end of Tuesday and presumably due to financial reasons - is also set to reduce the sport to five manufacturers: Ducati, Honda, Yamaha, KTM and Aprilia.
However, when Kawasaki sought to leave MotoGP before the end of its contract with Dorna, in 2008, the factory was forced to 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:run an unbranded 'Hayate' bike ♑for Marc𝄹o Melandri the following season as a compromise.
Kawasaki has not returned to MotoGP since and if Suzuki does walk away mid-contract the facto🐈ry might well receive a cool reception if💝 it ever wanted to come back in future.
What now for Joan Mir and Alex Rins?
Fortunately for Mir and Rins, most seats on ꦿthe 2023 grid are yet to be decided, with only Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda), Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) and Franco Morbidelli (Monster Yamaha) officially confirmed.
Although Yamaha is now confident of keeping Quartararo for another tw🔥o years that still meaಌns one Honda, one Ducati, one KTM and two Aprilia factory team seats are available.
With Aprilia and Suzuki the only manufacturers currently without a satellite team, the obvious answer to retain grid numbers in 2023 would💫 be the formation of a second Aprilia-backed team.
How Suzuki announced its MotoGP exit in 2011
After months of rumour, Suzuki confirmed𓄧 its previous MotoGP exit with a brief and carefully worded press release in late 2011 that spoke of a decision to 'suspend temporarily its participation'.
The split was made easier due to the next f꧙ive-year contract between the manufacturers and Dorna starting in 2012. Crucially, and in contrast to Kawasaki, Suzuki also included a planned return date. Might Suzuki adopt a similar stance this time around?
'Suzuki Motor Corporation has decided to suspend temporarily its participation in FIM Road Racing Grand Prix MotoGP from 2012.
'This suspension is to cope with tough circumstances mainly caused by the prolonged recession in developed countries, an historical appreciation of Japanese Yen and repeated natural disasters.
'Having an eye to returning to MotoGP in 2014, Suzuki will now focus on developing a competitive new racing machine for that class.
'Suzuki will continue motocross racing activity and support of road racing activities using mass-produced motorcycles, by obtaining FIM homologation and co-operation with the supplier of its development racing kit parts.'
After a wild-card with Randy de Puniet at the end of 2014, Suzuki's full-time MotoGP return - with the 🌺GSX-RR replacing the previous GSV-R and a new race team assembled by Davide Brivio - was ultimately pushed back a year until 2015.
Suzuki’s 500cc/MotoGP world champions
1976, 1977 – Barry Sheene
1981 – Marco Lucchinelli
1982 – Franco Uncini
1993 – Kevin Schwantz
2000 – Kenny Roberts Jnr
2020 – Joan Mir
P♓eter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
