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It’s Official: Suzuki Plans ‘Factory’ MotoGP Return in 2015

Suzuki’s Davide Brivio confirmed that the house of Hamamatsu plans to return to MotoGP in 2015 as a Factory team. What was first rumored a - then CRT, now Open option entry for the 2015 grid, now turns to be a full-on factory move, with all the bells and whistles.
Suzuki XRH-1 2 photos
Photo: motogp.com
And that is because the actual regulations of the MotoGP grant Factories a lot of advantages in the first year, basically allowing them to run their own software but with the advantages of the Open class teams. So this means that Suzuki will get24 liters of fuel, 12 engines and the rest, while being allowed unrestricted testing and engine development.

Suzuki has been intensively testing the new XRH-1 in-line 4 machine, including at the COTA, and the biggest efforts are aimed at building the software for the compulsory Magneti Marelli ECU.

The Factory option seems the natural one, because Dorna already announced that the 2016 season will bring the “unified” version of the software all teams must help to develop. During the 2015 season, Suzuki has plenty of time to learn how the ECU software must be in order to comply with their bikes and allow them to make the most of it.

Running an Open entry will not only almost nullify the results of the current software development phase, but will also leave Suzuki trying to figure out ways to make the bike work better with an unknown software. So we might say that Suzuki has one year to get acquainted with the Marelli ECU under race conditions, while at the same time, become as competitive as possible on the hardware side.
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