Suzuki reveal fresh stance on MotoGP comeback

Suzuki president Toshihiro Suzuki has not ruled out the idea of the Japanese marque returning to racing, including MotoGP, but no plans are in the offing right now.

The brand sensationally quit MotoGP at the end of the 2022 season having just signed a new agreement with Dorna Sports to remain in the series for five years.

Suzuki cited financial pressures and changing market trends for its decision, which broke up a team that won the world championship with Joan Mir in 2020.

Its decision to quit MotoGP also saw Suzuki withdraw all factory efforts in motorsport.

With a major regulation shake-up coming in 2027 in the form of 850cc four-stroke engines powered by 100% sustainable fuels, conventional thinking is that this could be enough to entice a manufacturer to join the grid.

In recent years Dorna had explicitly kept the grid slots vacated by Suzuki available for a manufacturer, with rumours of BMW interest swirling but so far amounting to nothing.

However, in August, Dorna’s chief sporting officer Carlos Ezpeleta said this was no longer the case and any manufacturer wanting to join the grid would have to merge with an existing team.

This would lead to an arrangement similar to Aprilia’s return to MotoGP in 2015, whose factory effort was run out of the Gresini garage until the end of 2021.

In an interview with Corriere dello Sport in Italy, Suzuki-san has opened the door for a racing return but not until the brand has a significantly “complete and varied” range of bikes for its consumers.

“The victories in MotoGP were, of course, very important for us,” he said.

“However, it doesn't matter much if we don't have a complete and diverse range of models for all motorcycle enthusiasts.

“And I don't think we are in that situation at the moment.

“It is important for us to quickly offer a complete product range that satisfies today's riders.

“If everything goes well, we will then return to racing - and win again.”

In April last year, FIM president Jorge Viegas told the media at the Assen World Superbike round claimed he’d had discussions with Suzuki in which he was told: “They said they were going to invest all the money they had in a new type of engine, blah, blah, blah.

“I think they will be back. They cannot sell bikes if they are not in competition.”

Suzuki did enter a GSX-R into this year’s Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race powered by a partially sustainable fuel, finishing eighth.

Whether Dorna would welcome Suzuki back would be the company’s biggest sticking point should it get to a position to run a MotoGP project.

That would likely depend on Suzuki being able to prove long-term viability, having now quit MotoGP twice since the modern era began in 2002.

The marque’s final MotoGP race to date at the 2022 Valencia GP saw it go out on a high, with Alex Rins scoring his second win of that season on the GSX-RR.