74 amcn.com.au
SUZUKI WAS ONEof two
factories that went backwards
last season. During 2016
Maverick Viñales took the
GSX-RR to one victory and
three further podiums. In 2017
Andrea Iannone and Álex Rins
didn’t score a top-three result.
The factory’s problems
weren’t all technical. They
started the season with a new
rider line-up: Rins was a rookie
and Iannone had come from
Ducati, a totally different kind
of motorcycle. Then Rins
missed a third of the season
through injury, while Iannone
struggled to adapt to the GSX-
RR. He frequently lost the front
and crashed, but his major
trouble was wheelspin. His
results were so poor that by
September there were rumours
he would be sacked.
Then everything changed at
the end of September when the
team did a two-day private test
at Aragon. Iannone was fourth
next time out in Japan and
sixth two times in the last three
races, while Rins was fifth in
Japan and fourth at Valencia.
“At the Aragon tests we tried
many different things with thechassis, different stiffness and
so on, and we also changed
the balance,” explains Suzuki’s
MotoGP technical manager
Ken Kawauchi. “After that test
the riders felt much better on
the bike. At the same test we
also tried a prototype 2018
engine which is like a mix of
our 2016 and 2017 engines.
We made our 2016 engine for
better turning and our 2017
engine for better traction, but
in fact we lost traction at sometracks, also because we lost
turning performance.”
Turning performance can
have a major effect on corner-
exit traction, because if the
rider can’t get the bike turned
fast enough, he will have to try
accelerating on the edge of the
tyre, so the tyre breaks traction
and spins. And once the
wheelspin starts, it’s difficult to
stop without losing time.
Suzuki also introduced better
aerodynamics after Aragon,
which improved the front end,
both into and out of corners.
Kawauchi believes his bike and
riders will be stronger in 2018.
“Most important is that we
now have a bike with good
balance, so we are now fine-
tuning. I think it’s only our
electronics settings that aren’t
at the top level.”
And a mostly miserable 2017
wasn’t all bad because Suzuki
will regain the performance
concessions they lost after their
stellar 2016 campaign. In 2018
they’ll be able to go testing
more than their rivals and their
riders will get nine engines
each, instead of the standard
allocation of seven.SUZUKI
Wins 0
Points 100
Final position 4th
Kawauchi (below) and his team
will be looking to carry their late-
season form over into 2018Late improvement
“Most important is that we now
have a bike with good balance,
so we are now fi ne-tuning”