Suzuki MotoGP team boss Livio Suppo says that he’s just happy to see his team happy following Alex Rins’ spectacular Australian Grand Prix victory on Sunday.
The win may well be Suzuki’s final MotoGP triumph only weeks before it withdraws entirely from the championship.
Speaking exclusively to The Race after Rins’s victory at Phillip Island, former Ducati and Honda team boss Suppo acknowledged that the success couldn’t have come at a better time for his team.
“It was really important because of course it’s been a difficult season after we knew that Suzuki wants to retire, and I’m really glad that Alex gave us this present to win at least one race,” Suppo told The Race.
“We still have two races to go and you never know, but this is done now.
“He rode an unbelievable race, and I’m just sorry that Joan [Mir] for a technical reason with a stupid machine that didn’t work had his race influenced.
“But let’s be positive, and I’m super happy for the team, for Alex, and just happy.”
How much the pull-out news, which became official after the sixth round of the championship at Jerez five months ago, affected Suzuki’s performances in what has been an abysmal final season, will never be known, something that Suppo himself admits.
But regardless of the decision’s effect, Suppo says it’s all the more reason to celebrate right now.
“I am telling the same to everyone at every race since Portimao, since Jerez in reality, that you don’t have to give up,” he said.
“We have a commitment for this season, we have to do the best, we have the potential to be fast and we have to do it, but it’s difficult to understand how much the decision has influenced the season.
“Honestly I cannot say, and I don’t think anyone can say, but for sure it was not easy. So I am super happy that at least for one day, we can be super happy and to celebrate.”
Suppo first found out that Suzuki had decided to pull out after the late-April Portimao race, and then informed his team on the evening of the post-race test at Jerez one week later.
He said the group of professionals he works with have never let morale in the garage drop too low even as they were unexpectedly forced to go job hunting.
Asked how the mood at Suzuki had changed, Suppo replied: “Honestly not as much as you can expect. Every one of us realised that it was not our fault.
“When I knew about the bad news, it was the Sunday night of Portimao and we were leading the rider and team championship.
“This means, from our side, we were doing a good job, and clearly the company took a decision that is not based on results, the part that is up to us.”
Why exactly the decision was made still remains not fully clear, with a changing global financial situation, the rise of electric vehicles and internal Suzuki politics all cited at various points.
And, while Suppo remains no more aware than anyone else, he says it’s meant all year that all he can do is get on with the job in hand.
“I respect their decision,” he explained, “and I understand that in this world the world is changing very quickly. Both in terms of the economic situation, the war; we live here [in the paddock] and we forget about the reality.
“But if you look at the reality you have to realise that the world is in a very tricky moment.
“Motorcycle racing, F1, we will all have to face this big revolution of the electric motor coming.
“I really hope that it’s just a bubble, because I can’t see how we can everyone go electric.
“But anyway, this is out of this job, and for us who were doing our very best it’s good to have this kind of reward.”
