Motorsport Week continues its end-of-season MotoGP review by reflecting on Suzuki, which claimed wins courtesy of the ever-improving Alex Rins, complemented by promising rookie Joan Mir.
Suzuki has played the role of plucky underdog very well since its return to MotoGP in 2015, making best use of its relatively-low resources to steadily work its way forwards ever since.
It undeniably lacks the financial clout of fellow Japanese factories Yamaha and Honda, as well as that of the Audi-owned Ducati and Austrian behemoth that is KTM.
Suzuki’s GSX-RR challenger has nevertheless always been recognised as one of the sweeter handling machines on the grid, allowing its riders to score strong results despite lacking power, although not necessarily across a full season campaign.
That changed this year as Suzuki managed to make a breakthrough in the power stakes while at the same time preserving the bikes agility in the bends.
This – combined with the squad’s fresh and upcoming young line-up of Alex Rins and 2017 Moto3 world champion Joan Mir – firmly threw the team into the mix as an organisation that shouldn’t be ruled out for great things.
Rins immediately lived up to this promise by scorching to a maiden MotoGP victory as he defeated the great Valentino Rossi at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, before bagging a runners-up result in Jerez, just 1.6 seconds back from winner Marc Marquez.
His early success – including a pair top five finishes in the first two races in Qatar and Argentina respectively – left him a superb third in the overall riders standings, only behind Marquez’s Honda and Andrea Dovizioso’s Ducati.
Rins continued to display strong form as he netted back-to-back fourth places at Mugello and in Catalunya, although disappointment followed as he crashed out in both the Dutch TT and the German Grand Prix, squandering his victory chances.
He was soon back on the winners’ rostrum as he denied Marquez in stunning fashion – diving underneath his compatriot at the final corner – to win at Silverstone, as the British venue’s long, fast sweeps played perfectly to the GSX-RR’s strengths.
By this time Rins had slipped behind Danilo Petrucci to fourth overall – owing to the Italian’s consistency of scoring in every race while he had failed to score in two since his Jerez podium – but his Silverstone win looked set to return him back to consistent front-running form.
It wasn’t to be though, and despite rarely finishing outside the top seven he never really looked likely to bag another win, ultimately failing to secure another rostrum following his British success.
While able to re-pass Petrucci in the points standings, they were both jumped by the resurgent M1 Yamaha of Maverick Vinales, who pipped Rins to third overall by just six points by the end of the year. Rins’ qualifying form, failing to make it through to Q2 too frequently, also left him playing catch-up in race trim.
Mir had a tougher time of it as a rookie in ’19, with a nasty crash and resultant injury in a Brno test smash – forcing him to miss the Austrian and British contests – stunting his progress somewhat, although his form improved markedly in the twilight stages of the season, particularly in qualifying as he out-performed Rins three times in the final seven races.
But while Rins had him covered in the races Mir will surely be a force to be reckoned with given the benefit of a year’s experience.
All in all though it’s been a great year for the relatively small Suzuki team. It scored multiple wins for the first time since its premier class return while Rins’ tally of 205 eclipsed Vinales’ previous best-ever for a Suzuki rider (202 in 2016), despite two additional DNFs.
Early signs from test rider Sylvain Guintoli indicate its ’20 prototype engine and frame should provide a further step, and if this proves to be accurate then there is every chance Suzuki could be a serious threat in both the riders’ and manufacturers’ championships next year.
