something Rins couldn't quite
understand given his good rela-
tionship with President Toshiro
Suzuki. "It's a little strange," said
the Spaniard. "Toshihiro-San is
super-friendly with me. He sent
me a video saying, 'congratula-
tions' when my baby was born."
Mir added, "Of course it's
surprising," on the lack of com-
munication. "But I think it's a
difficult situation for everybody to
manage. Nobody wants to speak
about this. If they decided this
so fast and like this, it's for one
big thing."
Given team and riders are
still expected to give everything
to win the crown this year, rival
team bosses were dumbfounded
by the Japanese's lack of com-
munication. "I was very sur-
prised they told the staff at the
end of the IRTA test and there
was no official recognition until
10 days later," Yamaha's Jar-
vis, who has great experience
working and understanding the
mechanisms of a Japanese cor-
poration. "This is very unusual.
That put the people in the team,
the Japanese engineers, the
European engineers, the team
staff, the riders, in a very uncom-
fortable situation."
A HISTORICAL
PRECEDENT
Historically, Suzuki has been a
conservative company, making
extreme decisions in extreme
times. It quit the 500cc class in
an official capacity in the mid-80s
despite winning two champion-
ships at the beginning of that de-
cade. Its withdrawal at the close
of 2011 in light of the 2008 eco-
nomic crash meant it watched
from the sidelines for three years
while rivals Honda and Yamaha
continued to clean up.
Even still, it's difficult to level
with this decision. The factory's
MotoGP effort is as good as it's
been in the four-stroke era. And
aside from the light blue colors,
its structure is unrecognizable
to what was presented in 2011.
Then the factory had Alvaro
Bautista as a lone rider, who
achieved a best finish of fifth all
year and finished 13th over-
all. Now, Rins and Mir should
be regular victory contenders
aboard one of the grid's best
bikes—a far cry from the GSV-R,
used from 2007 to 2011, which
bore little resemblance in either
look or design to the factory's
road fleet.
When seeking reasons, there
is sadly no escaping the cur-
rent bleak economic forecasts.
Another recession hovers
worryingly on the horizon, with
the worst consequences of a
two-year global pandemic and
European war still to be felt.
Budget is a worry for all facto-
ries at present, not least those
from Japan. Air costs have
nearly doubled compared to
pre-pandemic times and ferry-
ing equipment and personnel
to and from the east of Asia is
more exorbitant now than any
time in recent history. This is a
struggle to which some teams
in the smaller categories can
attest. At this cost, the center
cannot hold.
Team Manager Livio Suppo (left)
and Project Leader Shinichi Sahara
were, like its riders, also surprised
by Suzuki's sudden decision to
step away from MotoGP.
VOLUME 59 ISSUE 24 JUNE 14, 2022 P109
