FIM President Jorge Viegas babbles about Suzuki return
Valencia GP 2022: Alex Rins (42) in front of Jorge Martin and Jack Miller (43)
Actually, an FIM President should lead the fortunes of motorcycling worldwide and not spread nonsensical rumours. But Jorge Viegas taps "fake news" and announces a MotoGP comeback from Suzuki.
Portuguese FIM President Jorge Viegas is known for not being able to keep his mouth in check. He therefore puts his foot in it at regular intervals with exemplary accuracy. He announced last Friday at the Superbike World Championship in Assen that he was expecting Suzuki to make a MotoGP comeback. He personally spoke to Mister Suzuki in Japan and found out that the factory was investing a lot of money in a new engine. Viegas then told journalists: «I think they will come back. Because they can't sell bikes if they don't compete. Thats is quite easy."
Well, Suzuki still sold 1.63 million motorcycles and ATVs in the last fiscal year. But the Suzuki Motor Corporation slipped into a diesel scandal in the automotive sector in April 2022. Around 25,000 diesel vehicles with illegal switch-off devices (such as those used by the VW Group) were discovered, and fines worth millions have been threatened ever since.
In addition, Suzuki's car division has overslept e-mobility and is now belatedly investing huge amounts in the development of hybrid systems and e-cars.
That's why Suzuki decided in 2019 to withdraw from the Motocross World Championship. After the Jerez GP in 2022, the withdrawal from the MotoGP World Championship was confirmed, Suzuki left the Superbike World Championship a long time ago, and the traditional and successful involvement in the Endurance World Championship was also canceled for 2023.
Such hit-and-run actions have a long tradition at Suzuki. Suzuki dropped out of the 500cc World Championship overnight after 1983, and again for three years after 2011, to replace the hopeless 800cc V4 engine for the new 1000cc class with an in-line four for the GSX-RR.
But now the numerous Suzuki fans must not hope for a MotoGP return.
The suspicion arises that storyteller Viegas is confusing some things.
Because Suzuki would have no reason to replace the 2022 engine with a new concept. Finally, Alex Rins has won two of the last three races of the season at Phillip Island in October and Valencia in November 2022!
In addition, the Suzuki Motor Corporation has long since paid the contractual partner Dorna a million penalty for the early exit from the five-year contract for the 2022 MotoGP World Championship until the end of 2026, which the Japanese only signed in November 2021. And the 50 or so employees of the Suzuki Ecstar team have long since scattered to the four winds.
Suzuki no longer wants to invest as much in the motorcycle division as in the past and realign the business for the automotive future towards sustainability and renewable energies.
In the MotoGP class, the two orphaned Suzuki MotoGP places will not be allocated until further notice, they will remain reserved for new manufacturers. But companies like BMW, Kawasaki and MV Agusta have so far shown no interest.
Suzuki has repeatedly changed its corporate strategy abruptly. In January 2010, a minority stake in Suzuki was sealed by VW. The VW Group took over 19.9 percent of Suzuki, in return Suzuki received around 1.9 percent of the shares in Volkswagen AG for one billion US dollars. Suzuki CEO Osamu Suzuki already reported in August 2011 that Suzuki wanted to give up the VW shares again. On September 26, 2015, Suzuki actually sold its remaining 1.5 percent stake in Volkswagen to Porsche Automobil Holding.
Back to FIM President Jorge Viegas, who caused confusion in May 2019 with a clumsy interview. At the time, the Portuguese complained that Dorna was simultaneously managing and commercially marketing the two most prestigious road racing series in the world, MotoGP and SBK. He hinted that Dorna wanted to sell the SBK rights, but this was not the case.
Also: The FIM officials themselves chose Dorna 2012 as their Superbike World Championship partner. Four years ago, Viegas babbled on about new ideas and indicated that he wanted to change this situation.
Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta, who took over the rights to the 2012 Superbike World Championship from Infront, was not happy with these business-damaging statements. He had a clarifying telephone conversation with Viegas. Perhaps, in the excitement, Viegas had forgotten that the Dorna fees now contribute around 12 million US dollars a year to the financial well-being of the world association.
"The Dorna thus covers about 80 percent of the FIM annual budget," estimates a FIM insider.
“There can be no talk of selling SBK. We have a contract with the FIM for the Superbike World Championship up to and including 2036, for MotoGP even up to 2041,” Ezpeleta confirmed in 2019 in an interview with SPEEDWEEK.com.
On December 3, 2022, Viegas made headlines at the FIM Awards in Rimini with the exclusive announcement that the Rossi VR46 team would switch from Ducati to Yamaha for 2024.
But firstly, there is a contract between Ducati and the VR46 team, secondly, neither world championship leader Marco Bezzecchi nor Luca Marini (third place in Texas) want to switch from the Ducati to an M1 Yamaha, which is currently inferior.
Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta is responsible for MotoGP contracts with the factories and customer teams. "We have no information about Suzuki's planned return to MotoGP," said the 76-year-old Spaniard today.