In a terse statement from the Suzuki press office, the Japanese manufacturer made it official that it is negotiating with Dorna, the organizer of the MotoGP series, to disband its MotoGP team at the end of this year. In related news, both of Suzuki’s team riders, 2020 MotoGP champion Joan Mir and Alex Rins, have stated that they understand that they will need to find new teams to race for beginning with the 2023 series.
It is widely expected that the two grid positions currently occupied by Suzuki will be picked up by another team beginning next year. The identity of that team, and whether it has full factory support or is a satellite effort, remains to be seen. There is some speculation that KTM might pick up the two spots and run a MotoGP team under the banner of one of its sister brands, Husqvarna or GasGas.
Here is the press release from Suzuki:
Team Suzuki Press Office – May 12, 2022 –
Suzuki Motor Corporation is in discussions with Dorna regarding the possibility of ending its participation in MotoGP at the end of 2022.
Unfortunately, the current economical situation and the need to concentrate its effort on the big changes that the Automotive world is facing in these years, are forcing Suzuki to shift costs and human resources to develop new technologies.
We would like to express our deepest gratitude to our Suzuki Ecstar Team, to all those who have supported Suzuki’s motorcycle racing activities for many years and to all Suzuki fans who have given us their enthusiastic support.
https://www.cycleworld.com/story/motorcycle-racing/suzuki-explains-reason-leaving-motogp/ stay tuned.
Better Call Saul.
Racing is a waste of money. It ain’t the 70s or even the 80s and 90s anymore and no one really cares about it. Same with motocross and dirt track.
Yet you are here. Why?
Suzuki’s motorcycle line has suffered from neglect for many years now. Their motocross offerings are not competitive aside from an occasional result due to rider effort. Street bike development has also languished in the past several years. I would suggest that if their long term outlook shows more of their resources consumed by automotive efforts, they should plan and announce their exit strategy. Otherwise change their name to Mediocrity Motors.
I’d like to see BMW or Kawasaki enter MotoGP. Very doubtful though in these economic times.
Both manufacturers have said they have no interest in MotoGP, unfortunately.
I will miss Suzuki. But based on how they handled their departure, it appears the race team is somewhat incompetent.
I’m reasonably certain that the decision to leave and timing was entirely outside of the race team’s influence. “Came down from corporate”. Their results on the track shows that they’re certainly competent at their intended task.
I get a kick from the grid position line. As if the grid is a full 40 bikes or something. They just don’t want it to get any smaller than it already is. They should have thought about that twenty years ago when they skyrocketed the cost of showing up.
Whatever, the series still has a few fans and those fans are going to be bummed. For me it has been twenty years in the grave and this is just a predictable happenstance of something rotting off of its festering corpse. But that doesn’t make it any better for the fans.
Sorry fans. I understand that this is going to leave a giant Suzuki sized hole in the series no matter how many bikes are on the grid. It’s like The Flintstones without Barney. Betty might get some other guy. But it won’t be Barney.
I think they have plenty of bikes on the grid for the premier road racing series in the world. There are plenty of club racing venues if all you are looking for is 40 bikes racing on a 3ish mile track. Enjoy. And Suzuki has left MotoGP and returned before and I expect they will again.
I could see expanding the grid, assuming we don’t go back to something like the CRT days when half the bikes weren’t competitive and lapped riders interfered with the leaders too much. If the range of performance stayed where it is then the result should be closer racing throughout the field.
A few fans??? Motogp.com just announced their social media has over 40 million people watching them. That’s a little more than a few fans. Btw, I find it much more enjoyable that all their interviews aren’t centered on a certain former champion who, despite his poor performances, continually received massive amounts of media attention.
It’s really too bad that they are leaving MotoGP, but I understand the economic reasons. Unfortunately Suzuki seems to be poorly marketed but well engineered. Their progress in MotoGP over these few years yet their failure to impress the market with products proves that. For me their last big move product wise (in motorcycles anyway) was the Suzuki Hayabusa in 1999.
Not just poorly marketed but poorly designed (from a visual perspective) as well. Suzuki makes some of the ugliest bikes on earth (with strong competition from Kawasaki on that front) but they seem to be functionally quite good. They really should just fire all their designers and start over if they want to sell more bikes.
Who in your estimation makes good looking bikes?
Seriously? All the sport bikes from Japanese manufacturers look pretty much alike. If not for the graphics or nameplates you would be hard pressed to know one from the other if it rode by you. Same with other brands.
and they all look better than anything from KTM
I have to disagree completely. The Japanese sport bikes are easily distinguishable from one another.
Hmmm? Must be visual perception blindness or a a dislike of sport bikes. They look very different from one another.
1999, seriously? Did you miss the GSXR1000? Particularly the K5 who’s blinding engine is still revered today and is still acknowledged as one of the best ‘street’ superbikes ever!
Suzuki managed to screw up selling bulletproof cars in the US market. Nothing surprises me about them.