Will there be yellow in the paddock again?
If there is one brand that is conspicuous by its absence in the GPs, it is Suzuki. The “yellows” are not visible in both MX2 and MXGP since Kevin Strijbos' own KSRT team threw in the towel and joined forces with the Gebben Van Venrooy Racing Team.
Strijbos now sits on a Yamaha, while in the past he had a partnership with Suzuki for eleven seasons. He was always close to the brand, but was not even given any engines at the end of last season. Hence his move to the Dutch team. Suzuki's reasons are unknown and also incomprehensible. Since 2017, it has become increasingly quiet around the brand. Nowadays, only Max Anstie is an ambassador for the brand in the US, but not all is well and good there either. Milly Anstie, Max's wife, has expressed her displeasure via social media since the start of the AMA Outdoors and her husband's Suzuki is also not a model of reliability.
Crazy!
After the break with Stefan Everts' team, there are regular rumors about Suzuki's return. Time and again we hear radio paddock say that they will return to the highest level within a few years. The same rumors have surfaced again in the past few weeks. The return would already come in 2022. Or not? The brand has already been linked to a few teams, but no one can confirm anything at the moment.
The fact is that Suzuki has proven several times that they have the knowledge to be able to act at the highest level. The brand has won so many titles and therefore has the know-how in-house. It all started in 1970 when Joël Robert became world champion for the first time with Suzuki. In the past they also proved that they have the ability to rise from the dead, as the policy in Hamamatsu unexpectedly pulled the plug on their motocross activities at GP level several times, only to rise from the ashes again a few years later.
Who goes for yellow?
If there is already an ambition to return to the MXGP, the question remains which team does Suzuki want to make the deal with? Or should we reverse the story? Which team wants to invest in a brand that has done no R&D in recent years? The Suzukis are no longer up to date these days. It lacks power, an electric starter and the excess weight of a retired sumo wrestler. For comparison: a KTM SXF-450 'with' an electric starter weighs a lot less than a 2021 RMZ 450 with a kick starter.
The competition is also much further along in the development of their electronic hocus-pocus. Unless Suzuki secretly did a major update to their RMZs. In that case, the basis for working with an experienced GP team is a lot more realistic. And then the question is which pilots feel called to invest one or two years in the further development of the engine.
Triumph and the accountants
The transition to electric driving has already started in the automotive sector. Since the motorcycle industry is following the trend of slow-motion cars, it is only a matter of time before electric motorcycles appear on the streets. The question is not whether the MXGP will switch to a competition with electric motorcycles, but when. You don't have to be a math whiz to determine that an investment in combustion engines can be a bad accounting move if you say that in approximately 2030, engines that run on fossil fuels will no longer be allowed. Are the pen pushers in Hamamatsu going to allow another investment round while the whole world is clamoring for electric motors? If Suzuki has the courage to return to the competition, it must happen now because time is ticking relentlessly.
Then there is also the spectacular announcement that the British brand Triumph is moving into motocross and Enduro in 2022. And that may cost something because with the money from the Indian group Bajaj, the support of Ricky Carmichael and Ivan Cervantes, Triumph is pulling out all the stops. What do we want to say with that? That the pond has become a lot smaller for Suzuki if it wants to appear in the MXGP again with the large resources. But as always, nothing is impossible. In our wet dreams of the last few nights, Triumph in 'British Racing Green' and Suzuki in their traditional yellow regalia stand brotherly next to each other in the paddock with the world title at stake. In those same dreams, Sylvain Geboers and Roger De Coster received a phone call from Japan. Just saying.
Tekst: Danny Hermans
Photos: archive
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