Suzuki: ’17 engine ‘cancelled out its benefits’

Davide Brivio believes the selection of Suzuki’s current 2017 engine spec was a key factor in the factory’s difficult MotoGP season, with its perceived benefits creating other problems for riders Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins.

Team boss to the factory’s premier class programme, Brivio explained how the ’17 engine was designed to negate the traction issues of the previous season. But those improvements were imbalanced, and in turn led to problems in maneuverability, and turning.

Suzuki, he said, brought this spec to a private test at Jerez last November, with Iannone providing positive feedback. Those initial feelings were then reconfirmed in February at Sepang. It was only when Iannone’s repeated struggles during the European season were ongoing, did the “mistake in technical choice” become clear.

Although Rins missed five races due to injury, Iannone’s run of results from late April to early October made for grim reading for the factory that won a MotoGP race in '16, with just three top ten finishes to his name in that time.

“To be very honest with you we made a mistake in some technical choice for this season,” Brivio told Crash.net. “We chose an engine specification…

“In 2016 we wanted to solve the problem of traction. In 2016 one of our weak points was traction coming out of the corner. So we developed one engine, a smoother engine with some characteristics that were supposed to help the rider in that area.

“We brought this engine to Jerez in November last year and we tested. Andrea liked it. We re-confirmed it again at Sepang and February. He liked it and re-confirmed. It seemed to help on a traction side.

“But going through the season, we realised that this engine was creating problems in other areas, like entering into the corners, cornering. Basically, it cancelled out these benefits. This created a problem in some tracks where braking and entering into the corner is very important. This was one of the problems we had this year.”

Brivio also pointed to a test in the days after the Aragon GP at that track as reason behind the recent improvements shown by his riders during the three ‘flyaway’ races, where they achieved their best results of the year.

The Suzuki men placed fourth and fifth in Japan before both were engaged in a memorable eight-rider fight at the front of the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island.

“I would say the Motegi performance comes after our test in Aragon,” said Brivio. “There we tested something for 2018 but it was a time to review some settings, check again some parts – nothing new, or revolutionary but it tidied up the package, the parts and the setting.

“This gave both riders and, especially to Andrea, more confidence. I saw him more relaxed, more confident looking ahead and looking at the future. We see some areas that we can improve on for next year. We have some ideas. To understand if this really worked, we have to test and check. We will see this winter the preparation for the first race. The Aragon test was very positive for, let’s say, mood and a motivation point of view."