Team Suzuki Ecstar have pulled the covers off of their 2017 GSX-RR on the eve of the first pre-season test at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia.
The Japanese manufacturer will enter its third year in the premier class since making their return to MotoGP fielding an all-new line-up. Former riders Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro have been snapped up by Yamaha and Gresini Aprilia respectively, and in their place comes 2016 Austrian Grand Prix winner Andrea Iannone and Moto2 race winner Alex Rins.
2016 was a breakthrough year for Suzuki. Vinales took the team to their first victory since 2007 at the British Grand Prix, as well as three other podium finishes on his way to fourth in the standings.
This means that 2017 will see them running the same set of rules as the factory Yamaha, Honda and Ducati squads, though this loss of technical concessions hasn’t fazed the team.
Refusing to comment too much on the new GSX-RR at the team’s launch, Suzuki confirmed that the bike is an evolution of last year’s model rather than a total revolution. Team boss Davide Brivio admits that there is a lot of pressure to perform given the history of the manufacturer, but also said that this has helped to keep the team motivated.
“We have a lot of pressure because Suzuki has a lot of history, great riders, great achievements,” he said.
“With this project we try to renew this and bring this back. It’s a good motivation for everybody to try to continue this tradition and bring Suzuki back to the top. What we have done so far is quite surprising. Everything was new two years ago, and managing to win a race last year was amazing.
“We are excited to improve as much as we can. It’s good that we won, but this has to just be the starting point.”
Rins, who has spent the winter recovering from a back injury following a heavy crash in Valencia last year, and Iannone will get acquainted with their new bike over the next three days when testing gets under way tomorrow.
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