Suzuki ‘really wants, needs’ satellite team for ‘19

Davide Brivio, team manager to Suzuki’s MotoGP effort, has stated the factory is considering options to expand its presence in the premier class in 2019, but feels it is too early in the year to “say if we will make it happen or not.”

The Italian has long held the view that a satellite squad would be of great benefit for the Hamamatsu factory that won a MotoGP race just over a year ago, telling Crash.net it remains “one of our targets” for next year.

In the wake of Tech 3’s shock departure from Yamaha, other satellite outfits Marc VDS (Honda) and Team Angel Nieto Racing (Ducati) are currently considering options with other manufacturers for 2019. Suzuki would no doubt find a willing customer should it press ahead with expanding its presence.

Yet a lack of resources could prove problematic. The size of Suzuki’s racing department cowers when cast alongside rivals Honda or KTM. The factory has no experience of running a satellite effort either, with no more than two Suzukis appearing on a premier class grid throughout the four-stroke MotoGP era.

Providing a satellite squad with the appropriate factory backing is easier said than done. Plus organising operations would require a good deal of thought and know-how. That considered, Brivio still feels “it’s something we have to do … sooner or later.”

“A satellite team is one of our targets,” he told Crash.net at the recent MotoGP test in Qatar. “We really want to do it and we really need to have it. We are trying to work on this project. I can’t say now if for 2019 we will make it happen or not. But it’s something we would really like to do.

“Suzuki has never had a satellite team. We are a little bit worried in terms of organisation, and what we need, how many resources, or whatever. We would like to achieve that, I hope, for 2019. I don’t know but I can’t say now whether we will.”

Coming off two largely positive years since returning to MotoGP in 2015, last season saw Suzuki lag some way behind the targets it had set itself. 2018 should see no such dramas, however, as a winter of well thought out, measured work completed by two fighting fit riders has ably developed the ’18 GSX-RR into a bike boasting podium potential once again.

Asked whether the factory is currently more prepared to provide equipment to a satellite team than in previous years, Brivio said, “Probably if you talk to our engineers it is never the right time, you know? I’m joking but of course a satellite team is a massive additional work to a factory. So far Suzuki has always tried to stay concentrated on a factory team.

“Now to open another satellite team means more resources and a different organisation and things like that. It’s something that I think sooner or later we have to do. I hope we can make it as soon as possible.”