At Suzuki we hope to finish as poorly as possible a 2017 season to forget. So much to erase from the memories that the communication already talks about the preparation of the 2018 campaign which can only be better. The latest tests in Aragon attested to this new communication strategy which was also demonstrated on the track, where new solutions began to be explored. But the essential question remains: how did Suzuki get to this point? The answer would be in a new failed engine, yet validated during the off-season by new recruit Iannone.
Andrea Iannone would therefore be largely responsible for Suzuki's misfortunes this season. At the end of the 2016 campaign, Suzuki offered a new engine for its GSX-RR to compensate for the handicap reported by its former riders Casa Particular in Viñales et Aleix Espargaró in the areas of acceleration out of corners and top speed. A machine that only discovered the track during the winter tests at Jerez in November.
A trial by fire assumed by the new recruit from Ducati, Andrea Iannone. And him alone, since the newly hired team member alex rins had just injured himself in Valencia while discovering MotoGP. Joe the Maniac validated the new solution after comparing it with the 2016 version. Suzuki then moved on to the approval phase.
Except it was a mistake. That Suzuki is dragging today like a ball since the regulations do not authorize a return to a 2016 version that was also out of the box during private tests in Brno… And which pleased the Hamamatsu drivers.
We will therefore have to wait until 2018 to correct the situation. Last year, Casa Particular in Viñales had already won a Grand Prix in Great Britain, and Aleix Espargaró was a strong contender for the top 5. Today, Iannone is sixteenth in the championship and alex rins twentieth. Worse, the beginner KTM becomes a serious threat for the Japanese manufacturer which is in its third campaign at this level.
Now load Iannone may seem easy. He was alone at the helm this winter, he was only discovering the Suzuki after years spent on Ducatis. The ideal would have been that at least Aleix Espargaró was reappointed to ensure monitoring of the technical thread. But this kind of decision is up to Davide Brivio.
