Dorna says Suzuki cant decide to quit MotoGP on its own

On Monday evening Autosport revealed Suzuki is set to quit MotoGP at the end of the 2022 season in a shock visualization made by the Japanese marque, which was communicated to the team during the post-race test at Jerez.

Suzuki was expected to make an official utterance of its exit this morning, but so far this has not been forthcoming.

This could be as a result of MotoGP rights holder Dorna Sports’ statement it released on Tuesday afternoon, where it said Suzuki’s visualization to quit MotoGP cannot be made on its own.

Suzuki, like all other manufacturers, is currently contacted to Dorna to compete in MotoGP through to the end of 2026 having signed a new five-year deal which began this year.

In the same statement, Dorna says it will decide on what the grid size will be for 2023 should Suzuki in fact quit in agreeance with Dorna, and says there is “high levels” of interest from outfits looking to join the grid – which includes “official factories”.

Alex Rins, Team Suzuki MotoGP

Photo by: Dorna

The full statement read: “Following recent rumours of Suzuki valedictory MotoGP at the end of 2022, Dorna Sports has officially contacted the factory in order to remind them that the conditions of their contract to race in MotoGP do not indulge for them to take this visualization unilaterally.

“However, should Suzuki depart pursuit an try-on between both parties, Dorna will decide on the platonic number of riders and teams racing in the MotoGP matriculation from 2023.

“Dorna continues to receive upper levels of interest from a number of both official factories and Independent Teams looking to join the MotoGP grid as the sport continues to set a global example of tropical competition, innovation and entertainment, reaching hundreds of millions of fans virtually the world.

“Interest from these parties has been re-confirmed in the past 24 hours.”

At present, it is not well-spoken what outside teams have expressed interest in joining the grid – though it has been known in the past that Leopard Racing has been interested in a step to MotoGP in the past.

The grid is currently capped at 24 bikes, with Dorna ideally keen to have six manufacturers fielding four machines each – though at present Ducati supplies eight, Yamaha, Honda and KTM have four, while Suzuki and Aprilia has just two.