Electronics main focus for Suzuki in Austin and Argentina tests

Suzuki will not have a raft of new parts for Randy de Puniet to assess during forthcoming post race tests in Austin and Argentina, with the Japanese factory concentrating on development of the latest electronics spec.

Suzuki has only tested with the standard Dorna-supplied Magneti Marelli hardware twice in Malaysia back in February.

The task of getting its own Mitsubishi developed software to work with the new ECU is the prime focus for next week’s test at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, which is closely followed by another post race session at the new Argentina track later this month.

Suzuki boss Davide Brivio told MCN that new parts like an upgraded engine or chassis will unlikely be available until September, as Suzuki gears up for a full-time return to MotoGP in 2015.

Brivio said: “In terms of mechanical parts like the engine and chassis, we don’t have any big new things for the Austin and Argentina tests. Most of this will come for the September tests.  But we will continue to work a lot on the electronics. We found some good solutions at the second Sepang test and the factory has been very busy with some steps for Austin and Argentina. Electronics are the focus now and the mechanical spec will be after the summer to be ready for Valencia tests in November.”

When asked by MCN in which area would the main focus of future engine and chassis development, Brivio added: “With the chassis we suffer a little when grip levels are down, but when we have grip we are fine, so we are working to improve this grip issue.  We will try to test at some tracks where there is low grip. Aragon is one and also in Japan, in order to improve this.  Still our engine is a little too aggressive but this has been analysed by our engineers and it is clear that using electronics to cover this is not enough and we have to work on the mechanical part of the engine to make it smoother. Randy enjoys riding the bike and there are no big complaints other than these two areas.  The important point now is that we work on the electronics, even if it is only for one year in 2015 as a Factory option. This will be important for us to give our contribution with the other factories for the 2016 software.”

MotoGP will switch to a controlled ECU, including hardware and software for 2016, but to ensure vital technology development remains for the factories, Honda, Yamaha, Ducati and Suzuki will all be able to contribute to the software.