The end to Suzuki’s time in MotoGP has come with the sort of Hollywood movie ending that you’d think twice about scripting just because it’s too unrealistic, as Alex Rins raced to a second victory in three races on Sunday at the season-closing Valencian Grand Prix.
It means a bittersweet farewell for one of the paddock’s most successful and beloved teams that has to have sent an important message back to the Japanese management, who made the call earlier this year to pull the plug not long after Joan Mir ended its title drought with his 2020 triumph.
And with the team now folding after a highly successful end to the season and with riders admitting they don’t entirely understand why, it means that the state of shellshock that started when they were first informed in Jerez back in May has continued to until the very final moments of the season.
“In the end,” Rins explained after the race, “every time I jump on the bike and I go onto the track, I try to give it my everything. I think I did a good job for Suzuki, like getting a competitive bike, a winning bike, seeing Joan win the world championship. We did a lot of work.
“What they told to us is that they’re closing because they have other plans in the future, something related to the environment, so I totally respect it. It’s not easy, because we have a competitive bike, and this year they made an incredible step with the engine. We were going there with the Ducatis. But it’s their decision and I can’t do anything.
“I can’t say anything either, because I gave them a lot but they have me a lot, too. It is what it is. They took the decision in the fourth race to close the racing line, and since then I’ve tried to give my 100%. This was it, this was my 100%.”
Despite him having had months to prepare for the expected emotions of Valencia, they still came as a shock to Rins, though, who explained afterwards just how completely overwhelmed he had been as he sat on the grid in tears ahead of his final race with his to-date one and only MotoGP team.
“Throughout this weekend, many emotions have come to my mind, to my body,” he recalled. “On the grid, I was saying bye bye to the mechanics and I was crying. All the emotions came to me and at one point I had to say ‘come on, Alex, you have to focus.’ And then we did a great job to control the race.
“It was super special to see all the members of the team happy, smiling, crying. It was superb. There’s nothing more that I can say. I’m jumping to another box [LCR Honda] for a new chapter of my life, and I’m excited about that but I’m sad too.
“Six years of my life with Suzuki and we’ve learned a lot. We’ve won together, lost together, laughed and cried together. It’s going to be difficult, but it wasn’t in my hands.”
That sentiment was one that was very much echoed by his team-mate Joan Mir, too, with the 2020 world champion experiencing an equally wild spread of emotion following the race.
Less reserved than Rins in speaking about the reason for Suzuki’s departure, he did manage to correctly identify one thing about its corporate strategy going forward: that nothing Suzuki can do to replace the racing program is likely to bring the same amount of emotion and engagement as the actions of Mir and Rins has over the past years.
“It’s emotional to finish the last race for Suzuki like this,” Mir said, “ and I think in Japan they will probably regret it.
“But if they took this decision, they took it for a big reason. What a shame.
“I don’t know if maybe they want to invest in other things or whatever, but if you look at the image that we are giving here in MotoGP, with a beautiful bike, a beautiful team, with everything really nice; I think that no publicity campaign can give you what we are giving you here.
“I don’t understand why they took this decision.”
