Maverick Viñales' third podium of the 2016 season, this Sunday at Motegi, (Suzuki's best result in Japan since 2005 and John Hopkins' fifth place) adds a concession point to the Hamamatsu firm.
Reminder, concessions granted to certain
Advantages are granted to certain manufacturers if they meet all of the following conditions (art. 2.4.2.1 of the regulation, version of 24/08/2016):
- – Enter as a new manufacturer since 2013,
- -Not having won in the dry since 2013.
For 2016, all the advantages granted to a manufacturer are as follows:
- – 9 engines per season,
- – Authorized engine development,
- – Private tests authorized with Test and contract drivers, regardless of the track, within the limit of 120 tires per driver per season shared with Test drivers.
At the start of the 2016 season in Qatar, only Suzuki and Aprilia had these advantages, because they are two new manufacturers who entered the Championship after 2013 and who do not have any victories in the dry.
Yamaha, Honda and Ducati (which no longer has advantages under this new regulation) can use a maximum of 7 engines per rider. Likewise, the engine version is frozen before the start of the season and developments are prohibited during the season.
The withdrawal of these benefits during a season is based on a system of concession points scored in the dry or wet. If the manufacturer scores 6 concession points (3 points for a victory, 2 points for a second place, and 1 point for a third place):
- Private tests will no longer be authorized with immediate effect,
- 9 engines and development authorized until the end of the season: 7 engines and development frozen the following season.
After Motegi: 5 points for Suzuki
To date, Suzuki has one victory and two 3rd places. Thus the Japanese firm counts 3 + 1 + 1 = 5 points. Suzuki can continue testing freely. On the other hand, a new podium would increase Suzuki's account to 6 concession points. In this eventuality, Suzuki would no longer be authorized to carry out tests freely (immediate effect) and would lose all these advantages in 2017.
Today, of its 9 engines available, Viñales used 8 of which 4 are out of order, because the seals have been removed (for development or control purposes, etc.). For Aleix Espargaro, the situation is the same: 8 engines out of 9, including 4 unusable.
It is clear that Suzuki is taking full advantage of this advantage to develop the engine for the 2017 GSX-RR that Alex Rins and Andrea Iannone will use soon…
