From a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service:

SUZUKI TESTS POSITIVE AT BRNO

Team Suzuki GSV-R Tests.
Brno, Czech Republic.
August 26th and 27th.

Telefonica MoviStar Suzuki team riders Sete Gibernau and Kenny Roberts and Team Suzuki development rider Akira Ryo, stayed on at the Brno circuit in the Czech republic after last weekend’s MotoGP event, to test a number of new parts and settings on the new-this-year GSV-R machine.

In addition to the new chassis that Roberts and Gibernau tried in qualifying for the MotoGP, the three riders tested new fuel system parts, new suspension parts and settings and a number of new tyres. Ohlins Suspension and Michelin Tyre technicians stayed on with the team to help the Suzuki engineers test and evaluate the latest developments.

Suzuki introduced the new 990cc V-four, four-stroke engined GSV-R at the start of this season, bringing the development program forward by a full 12 months, to meet the new MotoGP regulations. The original plan was to race the existing 500cc two-stroke RGV machine this season and to test the new GSV-R in selected Japanese events, but Suzuki took the brave decision to bring the whole program forward and develop the new machine ‘out in the open’.

The GSV-R made a brilliant debut at the first MotoGP of the season at Suzuka in Japan. Reigning All Japan Superbike Champion and chief test rider Akira Ryo made the best of a ‘wild-card’ entry and lead for most of the rain-lashed race, only losing out to World Champion Valentino Rossi in the closing laps. Although the team has yet to match that early success, the target of further rostrum places before the end of the year is clearly realistic, following Gibernau’s close-fought fight for third place in last Sunday’s MotoGP race at Brno.

The tests produced positive results in a number of areas and the whole team are looking forward to making another step forward at the next MotoGP race at Estoril in Portugal on September 8th.

Garry Taylor, Team Manager:
“The whole team is in a positive mood following Sete’s brilliant ride here on Sunday; and these two days of tests have also shown a marked improvement in the overall performance of the new GSV-R.

“The factory made a brave decision to develop the machine out in the open where our failures can be seen as well as our successes. But of course a mixture of success and failure is the reality of any development program – You just have to aim for more success than failure!

“I think that it is clear that we are now making progress in the important areas. It is at times a painfully slow process, because you make an improvement in one area and that can have an adverse result in another area, and so you have to multi-check every aspect, every time you make a small change.

“Suzuki’s senior management is fully committed to the GSV-R program and with the on-going developments, we believe that we are on schedule to be back at the front as a major contender by the start of next season.”


Kenny Roberts:
“These test have been very important for us and we really needed them, because Suzuki had quite a lot of new stuff chassis-wise that we tried over the weekend. We honestly tried too many things – too many un-tested items that really got us lost and really didn’t give us anything we could use for the race. I went back to my settings for the race and really struggled with that and the problem that everyone had with the tyres.

“These two days of tests have given us a chance to get back to a good base. We are now getting started to get hold of things and get started on the test items and its going to give us a good bike to go to Portugal and ride and change from there. It will certainly be an advantage not having to test a lot of things we tested here. So its something we had to do and now we have a better base to start with at Portugal.”


Sete Gibernau:
“My race result here showed that we are getting more competitive, but we know that we must keep on improving every area of the machine because all the other teams are improving all the time as well.

“These two days of testing have produced some good results and we know what areas we need to concentrate on in the immediate future. Now that we are making progress we need to keep the pressure on.”