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The 2022 MotoGP season is just around the corner with the first race scheduled for 6 March in Qatar. Team Suzuki Ecstar is well underway with preparations and testing and has a new-look GSX-RR for Spanish riders Joan Mir and Alex Rins. Ahead of the new season, let’s look back at some amazing facts about Suzuki’s efforts in motorcycle racing. 
1. Suzuki debuts at the IoM TT
The year is 1960, and Suzuki’s first foray into motorcycle racing. The challenge they set themselves couldn’t have been tougher: the infamous Isle of Man TT. Undoubtedly the toughest road race on the planet. Even though this was Suzuki’s first ever race, the team managed to bring home all three bikes at the arduous event and has been going back to the island ever since, often to great success.
2. 16 world championship titles
Since 1962, Suzuki has racked up 16 world championship titles, scoring sometimes multiple victories in each decade. New Zealander Hugh Anderson proved unbeatable throughout the 1960s, chalking up four championship wins. Later, household names like Barry Sheene and Kevin Schwantz would record world victories on a Suzuki. Over the years, Schwantz has scored the most individual wins on a Suzuki, with 25 to his name in the 500cc/MotoGP class. To date, Suzuki has had a total of 160 wins and 498 podiums in six decades of racing.
3. A new-look GSX-RR
Fresh for this year is the venerable Suzuki GSX-RR, which Suzuki Team Ecstar will put into action as it tries to secure another world championship after Joan Mir’s fabulous 2020 win and a superb third-place finish last year. As well as a brand-new paint scheme and livery, there have been a few changes under the fairings, too, as Ken Kawauchi, the team’s technical manager, explains: “The 2022 GSX-RR has a similar base to last year’s bike but with a few crucial updates, especially in the area of engine performance. We wanted to maintain the manageability of our bike, which has always been strong in cornering and stability, while improving the power delivery. With help from all the engineers in Japan and Europe we feel we’ve achieved this, so now it’s time to test it on track with our riders.”
4. First MotoGP win
In 2002 the Motorcycle World Championship changed its name to MotoGP. That also saw the introduction of 1000cc four-strokes. After a bedding in year where both 500cc two-stroke engines and 1000cc four-stroke engines were allowed, all manufacturers eventually focused their development in the direction of the more powerful bikes. Fast forward to 2007, and another milestone in Suzuki’s racing history was achieved when Australian Chris Vermeulen gave Team Rizla Suzuki an epic victory in the rain at Le Mans – the brand’s first MotoGP victory.
5. Suzuki and Motul: 34 years of collaboration
This year marks 34 years of continuous collaboration between Suzuki and Motul in motorcycle racing. Over the past three decades, Suzuki’s engineers and Motul’s technical experts have forged a deep understanding and mutual working relationship that has taken both brands to great sporting success. The perfect oils have been developed especially for Suzuki’s engines, including an exclusive, experimental lubricant for use in Suzuki’s MotoGP prototypes, developed to cope with the unique and extreme demands from this kind of high-level racing. Those 30+ years of collaboration have helped in the development of Motul’s Factory Line; a racing-oriented range of products that the Team Suzuki Ecstar MotoGP team is using today.
Masahiro Nishikawa, Suzuki’s executive general manager, motorcycle operations, said of the long-standing partnership: “A 30+-year partnership with one single technical partner in the rapidly-developing world of Grand Prix motorcycle racing is an extraordinary achievement for both companies. It certainly proves the total belief that both Suzuki and Motul have in the value of this unique relationship in developing both Grand Prix-winning motorcycles and Grand Prix-winning lubricants.”
© Pictures: Suzuki Racing, David Goldman
