We were treated to Casey Stoner on a “courtesy” visit to Lamborghini when he was still a Honda driver…
We were treated to Jorge Lorenzo on a “courtesy” visit to a Porsche dealership when he was still a Yamaha rider…
Today, we now have the right to Alex Rins, last key player in the 2017 MotoGP transfer market, officially named Subaru ambassador in Spain.
It therefore seems legitimate to question the links that exist between Subaru and Suzuki, the destination that Alex Rins is trying to reach next year.
The links between Subaru and Suzuki are nowhere near as obvious as in the Lamborghini-Porsche-Audi-Ducati case, but they exist nonetheless:
– Subaru belongs to Fuji Heavy Industries, itself under the semi-control of Toyota. Gold Suzuki is a 1,75% shareholder of Fuji Heavy Industries,
– Suzuki 4x4s are sold under the Subaru brand in Japan,
– Subaru and Suzuki dealerships are often the same in France.
Everyone will see what they want to see., but for our part, the links are still too tenuous to be able to really assimilate this Spanish honorific representation to the heralding approaches of Stoner and Lorenzo.
Moreover, even if in the end, Alex Rins has a strong chance of ending up at Suzuki, the Spanish driver confirmed that he was still not alone in this: “We are talking to the MotoGP teams to try to be with them next year. With Suzuki we are trying to reach an agreement, although my rival is not making it easy, and we will see if we will soon know what we will ultimately do.”
We know his rival; he is French and is currently driving in Japan...
