Suzuki quit MotoGP and Endurance?! ASTONISHING! Why? | Crash.Net MotoGP 55

Keith Huewen: Suzuki scrapping EWC as well as MotoGP ‘astonishing’ Suzuki’s official exit from MotoGP and EWC, Andrea Dovizioso’s announcement that he won’t race in 2023, Marc Marquez’s injury update and Pedro Acosta’s difficult rookie Moto2 season are just some of the topics on this week’s Crash.net MotoGP podcast featuring Keith Huewen. Having previously announced their intention to leave MotoGP, after just one year of their present five-year contract, Suzuki have now formally concluded negotiations to sever their MotoGP contract with Dorna. The Japanese factory has a long and illustrious history in grand prix, winning its most recent world championship with Joan Mir in 2000. However, the announcement also revealed that Suzuki is also pulling out of the Endurance World Championship, which the ‘Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT) has won eight times since 2007, including the last two seasons. “Maybe they needed the Endurance money to pay off Dorna for the MotoGP situation!” began former British champion and Grand Prix rider Huewen, who took his best 500GP result of fifth place on a Suzuki in 1983. “I can't see they will be out of endurance completely. There are other Suzuki teams that will be factory backed, but the actual full-factory team, underwritten by Hamamatsu, is no more. “I think that's probably a bigger deal than pulling out of MotoGP, to be honest. I mean Suzuki were so embedded in the Endurance World Championship. I find it astonishing - and the way it came out, just one little line in the press release. “But, and I've touched on this several times, because of the war in Ukraine, the financial situation and so on - it is having a massive effect in boardrooms on the other side of the world. “Yes, it's going to cost them a lot of money and Dorna will have come to a reasonable agreement with the Japanese, but the fact they pulled out of MotoGP having only just signed for another five years is remarkable. “It's almost knee jerk, but I think that the world economy is in such a situation at the moment and the smaller factories, in this case Suzuki, have to take this massive, massive couple of steps. “It's actually a bit scary really. I hate being the doom monger for the world situation, but I still think we've got more of this to shake out. Everybody will be looking at their books at the moment. “We've been here before with world recessions, where it's really affected racing to the point where - if you go back as far as my day - Superstock became the top class in the British Championships. #motogp #motogppodcast #bagnaia Follow us on social media Twitter:   / crash_motogp   Facebook:   / crash.net.mo.  . Instagram:   / crashnet_motogp