Perhaps no team started the 2020 MotoGP season with more potential than Suzuki. With two young, highly-talented riders and a top-class bike that is finally the equal of any of their rivals (and perhaps better than most), Alex Rins and Joan Mir were brimming with romise ahead of the scheduled first round in Qatar.
However, coronavirus got in the way and the first race instead ended up being more than four months later, kicking off with two races at Jerez – a track that’s far from the most favourable on the calendar for the GSX-RR.
Since then, it’s been far from the start to the season that Suzuki dreamed for. An injury for Rins and crashes for Mir mean that their potential is very much unfulfilled, even if the sophomore rider has shown signs of turning it around with a podium last weekend at the Red Bull Ring.
So what’s gone wrong so far? Well, it’s hard to be too harsh about Rins’ results given the shoulder injury that he picked up in qualifying for round one and has been carrying since.
Given that he didn’t just dislocate the joint but did significant muscle and tissue damage, it’s actually been quite impressive how Rins has been able to perform all things considered, with a fourth in Brno the stand-out result of his season so far – although Red Bull Ring could’ve been even better, only for an overtaking attempt on eventual race winner Andrea Dovizioso to end in a crash.
Mir has less of an excuse than Rins, as Suzuki’s second-year rider puts 2019’s injury woes behind him and starts to get settled into life as an experienced MotoGP rider. Pushing too hard in the heat of Jerez and getting wiped out by Iker Lecuona in the mid-pack in Brno, he’s had a 50% DNF rate so far in 2020.
However, his result last weekend at the Red Bull Ring was a big step forward not just in performance but in confidence. Finally delivering on a long-promised podium finish, Mir did it in style by snatching second from Jack Miller in the final seconds of Sunday’s race at a track where Ducati remains unbeaten.
It could well be an important result in Suzuki’s grand prix story, too, signalling a rise to form for Mir and perhaps opening the floodgates for the remainder of the season. So far, the high heat of Jerez and Brno has worked against the Suzuki riders, and they went into the Austrian Grand Prix not really acknowledged as podium contenders thanks to their horsepower disadvantage.
However, with one more race in Austria before the season then moves from Misano to Montmelo and then to Le Mans, now is exactly the right time for young Mir to be finding his feet and starting to look like a podium contender.
The calendar will also aid Rins, with the longest break in the intense and compressed schedule kicking off on Sunday, giving him two whole weekends to heal up before he has to jump back on a MotoGP bike.
Last Sunday’s second place had more reasons for creating hope within the Suzuki garage than just by heralding Mir’s burst into podium contention though.
Coming at a track where Suzuki wasn’t expected to be able to dice with the ultra-fast Ducatis, Mir was able to stay in contact with race winner Dovizioso until the chequered flag and to steal second from Miller in the final corners.
That suggests that Suzuki has been able to do the exact polar opposite of KTM’s secret to success in 2020. While the Austrian manufacturer has built a race-winning high-powered V4-engined bike that can still carry corner speed, Suzuki seems to have figured out how to build a sweet-handling inline-four that still has enough grunt to not go backwards in a straightline dice.
Combine it with the GSX-RR’s rapidly-improving qualifying performance – something that let Suzuki down time and time again last year – and it could be that the stars are finally ready to align.
It looks like the Hamamatsu manufacturer has worked out how to help the riders get the best out of the bike for time attack mode over the winter. The Suzukis are still not quite front row contenders, but Mir is now consistently in the top 10 and launched last week’s podium charge from sixth.
With all that in mind, it could well be that Suzuki is on the crest of a wave that looks set to leave it in an excellent position for the remainder of the 2020 season. The poor start to the year means that a title challenge is all but done already, with the duo in ninth and 12th, already over a race win adrift of title leader Fabio Quartararo.
But, with a solid base in what will no doubt go down in the history books as one of the craziest grand prix seasons ever and with both riders already secured for 2021 and 2022, they’re in a position that many of their more established rivals could only dream of.
