But the riders were called
into Suppo's office midway
through the afternoon, where
they were told the manufacturer
intended to withdraw. Soon
after, the team was gathered
to learn of the bombshell news
that Suzuki intended to withdraw
from MotoGP at the end of this
season, Rins could do little other
than break down. "It was super-
hard," he said. "I was fully crying
because I've given everything to
this team since 2017."
Everyone involved was blind-
sided by the news. Even Suppo
spent part of the day discussing
future plans and the rider's mar-
ket with Yamaha's Managing Di-
rector Lin Jarvis. "My immediate
reaction when they told me they
were going to quit was 'That's a
load of bollocks,'" said Jarvis.
"The last person I spoke to in
the paddock was Livio. We had
a good 20-minute discussion in
the paddock talking about the
riders' market, how to work bet-
ter with past situations."
RADIO SILENCE
The news was broken the eve-
ning of the Jerez test by reliable
Catalan journalist Uri Puigde-
mont. But official confirmation
didn't arrive for a further 10 days.
Only on the eve of the French
GP was a short, 98-word state-
ment released. It pointed to "the
current economical situation"
as well as "the need to concen-
trate" the factory's "effort on the
big changes that the Automo-
tive world is facing" by way of
explanation.
The team could offer no of-
ficial communication in France.
Suppo and Sahara were off lim-
its for interviews and were rarely
seen outside the Suzuki garage.
Only the riders were available
for official comment. Incredibly,
no one from the team had been
contacted since the Jerez test—
Joan Mir won the MotoGP title in '20.
FEATURE I SUZUKI'S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP DEPARTURE
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