Keith Huewen: Rins wins - but what must Suzuki be thinking?
Rins took the soon-to-be-extinct GSX-RR to its first win since team-mate Joan Mir’s 2020 title-winning season with a brilliant last-lap pass on Ducati’s new title leader Francesco Bagnaia, before holding off a rejuvenated Marc Marquez.
Having soldered on through the turmoil and uncertainty created by Suzuki’s shock exit announcement, Rins’ victory prompted jubilant and emotional scenes among team members in the pits.
But what might the Suzuki board members that voted to bin the project have been thinking?
“Whoever it is that looks after Suzuki’s social media is brilliant: ‘We couldn't just LEAVE’, which I thought was perfect,” said former Grand Prix rider and British champion Keith Huewen.
We HAD to do it! We couldnt just LEAVE Dedicated to all of the people that has worked in, helped or supported Suzuki through the years and never lose their faith. Only 2 races to end the dream but these memories will last forever #AustralianGP #MotoGP #Suzuki #42ins pic.twitter.com/I4GFL3YNYi
— Alex Rins (@Rins42) October 16, 2022
“You wonder what’s going on at Hamamatsu and what they must be thinking.
"It's almost like the team has worked one right up their backsides in Hamamatsu. And you’d want to under the circumstances.
"Whether you are a rider, team member or whatever, to completely have the rug pulled out from underneath you, and then you go and win on arguably the best track of the series.”
Crash.net MotoGP editor Pete McLaren added: “Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro said after the race, ‘the hardest thing in MotoGP is to have the speed to win’. Aleix spent ten years in the sport without that speed, which is why he was so frustrated at seeing a victory opportunity slip away due to technical issues on Sunday.
“Tying that in with Suzuki, they’ve got a MotoGP bike with the speed to win - and they’re scrapping it. What a waste! They've got the whole package, riders, team, bike and in two races time, the project goes in the bin.
“There are people that will have been part of that winning team on Sunday who won't have a job in two races time. It's just madness really that Suzuki is wasting what they have in MotoGP.
“Suzuki knows how difficult it is to have a winning package because their previous bike, the GSV-R never really had that speed from 2002-2011. And they’ve now won six races and a world championship with the current GSX-RR.
“You might say, ‘Oh well, it's great to go out with a bang’ and I'm delighted for the team and for Rins to win at Phillip Island. But my overwhelming feeling is that to put this package and great team in the bin, if you like, is such a waste.”
Huewen said: “It's just a shame we can't have a Ross Brawn situation, where Honda had done all the development, got their Formula One car to a really good position and then gave it to Braun for £1 and Jenson Button goes and wins the world title the next year.
“You hoped something like that could have happened with Suzuki. That they’d give the team to somebody that wants to run it. But there won't be a situation like that.
“I think Suzuki are doing themselves more harm than good when it comes to their reputation. But when it comes to their books, at the end of the day there has got to be a financial reason behind it."
McLaren said: “It’s interesting, whenever I’ve mentioned the Suzuki decision to a few senior people in the paddock, they just shake their heads and shrug their shoulders in disbelief.
"On the financial side, the bikes are not going to fundamentally change because the technical rules are locked in place for the rest of the five-year period.
“Yes, MotoGP is expensive, undoubtedly. But there's no big redesign needed and the bike is already a winning package. Rins proved that. It doesn’t need vast amounts of R&D money pumped in.
“It’s just a shame it’s come to this. And the whole thing about dropping MotoGP to move into electric vehicles, we saw in the past that Fiat chose to be title sponsor of the Yamaha MotoGP team to help sell cars.
“Suzuki could have branded the MotoGP project with the name of their electric vehicles and used the worldwide exposure to market the EVs. But anyway, it’s all too late now.”
Huewen: “It'll never happen, but wouldn't it be good if we could get an interview with anybody from the Hamamatsu board to understand the thinking behind this, or lack of it?”
Podcast host Harry Benjamin then steers the conversation onto Francesco Bagnaia's new lead in the MotoGP title chase after a disastrous race for Fabio Quartararo, Marc Marquez’s super save and podium return, Marco Bezzecchi as rookie of the year, the proposed ‘red flag’ button system, plus the Moto2 and Moto3 races.
The show then ends with a preview and predictions for this weekend’s Sepang round, where Bagnaia can be crowned MotoGP champion.
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