The news, communicated by the top management of the Japanese company to the staff in Jerez last Monday, was greeted like a bomb by the troops. Many of those present took hours to process the information received, both for the consequences they will have in each individual case, and for the surprise they aroused.
Nobody, not even Livio Suppo, the team manager, hired less than two months ago to lead the project, was able to utter a single word of dismay. His “no comment” response to reporters who went looking for him after Motorsport.com broke the news was a perfect reflection of his bewilderment.
More than a week later, the press release from the Hamamatsu manufacturer, which should confirm the dismantling of one of the best planned and implemented MotoGP programs of the last decade, has not yet arrived. This weekend, the caravan will move back to Le Mans and Suzuki will be obliged to say something.
Clearly, not the 50 or so employees who go to the circuits and are already looking for work. But the company, to justify his farewell and assure his customers that his commitment to them is still valid.
In the past ten years, Suzuki has left MotoGP twice. The first, at the end of 2011; the second will be once the checkered flag of the last Grand Prix of 2022 is flown, in Valencia, on 6 November. In both cases, the project manager was Shinichi Sahara, who also had the task of passing on the decision to Jerez.
The most plausible difference between the two episodes is that, while on the first occasion the championship was already over when the news spread, this time everything came to light with three quarters of the calendar still to be played. This obviously will make the atmosphere inside the team more tense for the next races, despite the level of professionalism of its members has been more than demonstrated.
Livio Suppo, Shinichi Sahara, Suzuki MotoGP Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The disbelief of the whole paddock at the news of the sad path that Suzuki is taking is total. In the team itself, in other teams and in the organization. In part, this incredulity is understandable when one takes into account the contract which, in theory, ensured the manufacturer’s participation in the World Championship until 2026.
The declaration that Dorna, promoter of the World Cup, made public on Tuesday, in which it warns the “defector” of the legal and economic consequences that he will have to face, only underlines the sense of sadness that the whole affair arouses.
This discrepancy is just another indication of the absurdity of this escape so difficult to understand, especially if we take into account the latest moves made by the leaders of the racing department of the brand, and the good record in this beginning of the championship: Alex Rins has arrived at Jerez sharing the head of the general classification with Fabio Quartararo.
To begin with, no one in their right mind would hire an executive like Suppo and offer him a two-year contract if he suspected that closing the entire facility is an option to contemplate. But, in addition, both Suppo and Sahara have sat down several times in recent days with Rins and Mir’s agents to negotiate the renewal of their contracts.
In fact, both riders learned of Suzuki’s intentions 15 minutes earlier than their technicians. Before this cold shower, the message to the pilots appealed to the general post-coronavirus context and the instability caused by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, to justify a reduction in their salaries. Although the first talks did not go too well, subsequent contacts opened the door to optimism. An optimism that will eventually burn to ashes.
Aside from the human drama behind such a release, the impact it will have on the already buzzing driver market will be savage. Mir had said from the start of the season that he intended to stay in blue. But Suppo’s initial reluctance to give in to his demands prompted the 2020 world champion to make a move. Today everything seems ready for the # 36 to join Marc Márquez in the factory Honda team from 2023, a move that would cause Pol Espargaró to lose his place.
Given that at this stage of the film it is practically impossible to project an X-ray of the colors that everyone will be wearing, it is certainly less casual to focus on the teams and bikes that will take to the track.
Massimo Rivola, CEO of Aprilia Racing, told Motorsport.com a few days ago that he is willing to “study” the feasibility of creating a satellite structure “if an interesting offer arrives”. Before this bombshell news, the RNF had already moved to explore the possibility of a partnership with the Noale company to leave Yamaha.
However, the fact that a team as competent as the one that now makes Suzuki one of the benchmarks on the grid could alter the plans of Razlan Razali, who in just over three years has gone from being the visible face of success and of the force with which the Sepang Racing Team (SRT) broke into MotoGP (2019), as the protagonist of an irremediable free fall.
His best positioned driver is Andrea Dovizioso, 20th, with eight points, two more than Darryn Binder (21st), his teammate. They are joined by the team in penultimate place in the team standings and without much hope of being able to reverse the situation.
In just one year, the relationship between available riders and bikes will have radically changed. At the end of 2021 one could have the feeling that there was a lack of riders capable of being competitive with high-level prototypes, now the opposite is true and it would not be strange that some illustrious riders could be left without bikes.
Where will Rins go? What will become of Franco Morbidelli? Are the renewals of Aleix Espargaró and Maverick Viñales with Aprilia in danger? Suzuki’s departure will mean that other teams and other manufacturers will have more power when it comes to squeezing anyone who wants to be part of it, and this applies to both riders and employees, who unfortunately are the biggest link. weak of this unfortunate result.
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