Suzuki Leaving MotoGP, Supposedly: What Next?

[advrider]

Update: Here’s MotoGP organizer Dorna’s opinion!

It hasn’t been officially confirmed yet, but multiple sources say Suzuki plans to withdraw its team from MotoGP at the end of the 2022 racing season. If true, this leaves us asking: Is this the start of a transformation inside Suzuki? Or maybe just one more sign of change that can no longer be ignored?

The move from MotoGP

As always, GP insider David Emmet has a great write-up on the story; you should head here for his detailed look at the situation from a roadracing perspective. In a nutshell, here’s what he says: Suzuki wants to cut costs. Instead of finishing its contract with Dorna, and despite winning the 2020 championship and doing well so far this year, the company’s directors have decided to pull the plug.

Supposedly, the official confirmation will come today (Tuesday, May 3).

The V-Strom 1050XT is much-improved over the original model, but the series has not undergone a total overhaul like the competition has. Updating reliable designs keeps prices down for both the consumers and the company. Photo: Suzuki

Moving towards what?

So, is Suzuki planning to emulate Kawasaki, and focus on World Superbike racing? That would be great, but it seems unlikely. Instead, it looks like the company will continue its cost-cutting measures that have been in effect ever since the 2008 financial crisis. The MotoGP move should not come as a surprise. Suzuki isn’t seriously involved with any other major global racing series, and hasn’t been for years.

Why race, if you don’t have new bikes to show off? The only major new platform Suzuki has developed since ’08 is the latest-gen GSX-R1000 superbike. Everything else the company sells in North America has been a refinement of pre-existing technology. The V-Strom 1050 and 650, the Katana, the DR-Z and DR series, even the latest Hayabusa overhaul—these bikes all have their roots in the 1990s.

This doesn’t make them bad bikes. There’s lots to be said for this approach, from a reliability and affordability standpoint. However, buyers are noticing the lack of development. Although Suzuki has teased some exciting new tech over the past decade (particularly the turbocharged Recursion concept bike), and we’ve seen plans for a new parallel twin platform for years, we haven’t seen any of that come to market yet. Suzuki actually built a new factory in Hamamatsu over the 2010s, and even then, it didn’t really change its lineup. Aside from the latest-gen Gixxer Thou, the most innovative platform Suzuki has brought to western markets in recent years is the GW250—and that bike was innovative because it was an overt Chinese/Japanese team-up, the likes of which we hadn’t seen before.

We’ll probably see more of that, though, because company leadership has indicated they think mass-production small-cc bikes are the future.

None of this is saying Suzuki plans to cancel the DR650 (perish the ghastly thought!) or other bikes over 400cc. But it probably is a hint that we aren’t going to see Suzuki building new superbikes, or big-bore ADVs. Instead, the business plan we’ve seen over the past few years (Reduce, Re-use, Recycle) will continue, until the existing lineup that can’t be cheaply brought forward into new emissions standards any longer. The real question is: What happens then?

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