Suzuki poised to officially confirm MotoGP withdrawal

Suzuki is expected to officially confirm it will withdraw from the MotoGP world championship before the end of this week.

The Japanese factory was set a deadline by Dorna boss Carmelo Ezpeleta to commit to the new 1000cc MotoGP class by last Friday (November 11), as was first reported by MCN.

There was no public confirmation from Suzuki that it would continue by the Dorna imposed deadline and British-based team boss Paul Denning told MCN: “I have spoken to Carmelo and updated him and I was told by Suzuki that they need about a week to make an official announcement.  The longer the situation goes on then clearly it becomes more difficult in every sense, so it certainly isn’t positive that we hadn’t got a fixed position from last Friday.”

Suzuki team staff though have been informed of the decision to withdraw at the end of a saga that has done little for Suzuki’s reputation.

Doubts have remained about its future ever since it blamed the dire state of the global economy for its decision to downsize to just one factory GSV-R machine in 2011.

Suzuki’s departure leaves just Honda, Ducati and Yamaha with factory involvement in MotoGP but Dorna boss Ezpeleta told MCN last week that the 2012 grid is still likely to feature 22 bikes.

Honda, Ducati and Yamaha will all enter four bikes while there could be as many as 10 private 1000cc projects (CRT) on the grid, including four bikes powered by Aprilia’s RSV4 engine.