Suzuki ‘won’t stop trying until the end’, new fairing ‘really good’

Such concerns were eased at Catalunya on Monday when the factory rolled out not one, but two, new fairing updates – with positive results.

“We’ve shown today that we’re still implementing new items according to the original test plan set at the start of 2022, and the fact that Suzuki is leaving doesn’t change that,” said team manager Livio Suppo.

Aerodynamics is the only area where Suzuki’s winter development didn’t go to plan, the factory continuing with the 2021 wings on the machines of Joan Mir and Alex Rins so far this season.

But like most of its rivals, Suzuki still has one fairing update available.

With Rins out of action due to the wrist fracture in Sunday’s race, Mir was the lone GSX-RR on track for the test, completing 55 laps as he worked to improve corner entry and compare the two new fairings with the current version.

“The main thing was to understand our [corner entry] problems and we are working in the correct direction on that,” said Mir, who recovered from 17th to 4th in Sunday’s race.

“Plus we tried some new fairings from Suzuki, Suzuki brought some new stuff that is really, really good. I like the new fairings. I'm sure we can get some advantage from that.

“[Aero] was an area on our bike that we had margin to improve and I think it will be really good.”

At least one of the new fairings (pictured) featured side pods, suggesting more downforce and therefore anti-wheelie, an important characteristic for the upcoming Sachsenring round.

“We have to see on the data but today I liked the [new] fairing a lot,” confirmed Mir, who added that, if making a decision based only on his feeling at the test, he would race with the fairing next time out.

Suzuki 'won’t stop trying until the end' in MotoGP

“Joan did a very good job today, and especially as he was alone in testing due to Alex being unable to ride,” added Suzuki’s technical manager Ken Kawauchi. “He put in many laps and went through many items, the main focus of which were the aero packages.

“We made some steps in terms of chassis and other settings, and also an improvement in the turning of the bike.

“We’re feeling very optimistic about the coming races, and we won’t stop trying until the end.”

Mir, whose fourth place was Suzuki's first race finish since the shock news that the factory would quit MotoGP, set the 15th fastest lap time, but was only 0.861s from Yamaha's test leader Fabio Quartararo.

Both Rins and Mir are currently tied for seventh place in the world championship standings, with three DNFs each (plus a further non score for Rins) from the opening nine rounds.