‘Both riders have one big weakness – qualifying’
Between 1976 and 1982 Suzuki won consecutive constructors’ titles. And four rider titles.
In the 39 years since, they have added just three rider championships - Kevin Schwantz (1993), Kenny Roberts Jnr (2000) and now Joan Mir (2020).
Saturday afternoon woes Despite producing almost identical GSX-RR lap speed with vastly differing styles, Mir and Rins share a glaring weakness: qualifying. And it is one that has the potential to haunt Mir’s title defence and the ability of Rins to wrest the crown from his teammate.
Could it be that Suzuki’s brash title aspirations will be largely decided on Saturday afternoon in qualifying with the ever-increasing focus on front row starts on a compressed MotoGP grid?
More so with the Doha double GPs to open the season at a circuit that is horsepower heaven for Ducati and Honda. The ability of Mir and Rins to come from behind will face a stern examination against the 350km/h top speeds of the V4s.
Mir won the 2020 title despite just once starting on the front row. That forces the execution of a near perfect overtaking strategy and a late race surge as well.
Will it work again across a broader range of faster and wide open circuits this coming season?
Mir admits the issue and has been working on it during winter training and he believes he has sharpened the risk-reward mentality to qualify faster, although that is yet to be tested in the heat of a qualifying battle against time attack masters like Fabio Quartararo, Jack Miller and Marc Marquez.
“What I have been doing in training during the winter is trying to improve my performance and work on the technique of the time attack,” Mir said.
“I’ve been trying with a motocross bike, a supermoto and even a GSX-R. On those bikes I am able to make good lap times in a time attack. I don’t struggle to do it.
“Our problem is with the MotoGP bike to use the rear tyre more in qualifying so we will work in this area — to improve this without losing the performance over race distance.”
Strong Saturday afternoon pace to start pole or the front row is an increasing advantage as the gap closes at the pointy end of MotoGP. The tyre friendly late-race pace of the Suzuki GSX-RR is a real strength but it leaves little room for race strategy error against the faster V4s from Honda, Ducati and KTM. Suzuki tech boss Ken Kawauchi is aware of the issue of maximising soft tyre performance in qualifying. But there might be as much to gain from time attack rider mentality with Mir and Rins willing to risk going to the outer limits during a one-lap dash.
Suzuki’s Magnificent Seven The management equilibrium and the intensity of the internal Mir vs Rins contest will be under the spotlight with Sahara as chairman of a seven-person committee to replace the silky team boss skills of the departed Davide Brivio.
The concept sounds cumbersome and if Sahara pulls this off with six senior team members plus two riders - Mir and Rins - in his ear it will be a mind-bending management performance.