Last may came the surprising news of Team Suzuki Ecstar’s departure from MotoGP at the end of the current season. Although the team assures that there was not a considerable impact on the internal mood and way of working, Paco Sanchez sees the structure acting differently – something that he doesn’t even blame considering the circumstances.
In an interview with the YouTube channel TR MotoGP, Joan Mir’s manager admitted that after a promising start, there was an evident turning point with the news of Suzuki’s departure: ‘Since then it has been a total disaster. The bike is no longer competitive, the technicians… although everyone says they will do very well, everyone is looking for the future as best they can, the head is not 100% in what is necessary, there is no such spirit of team ‘.
In Sanchez’s opinion, Suzuki has completely lost the sense of family and group instilled by the former team manager, Davide Brivio:
– Joan has complained many times: instead of criticizing the rider when things don’t go well in qualifying, let’s dedicate ourselves to working with the bike. This is a team, we all win and we all lose. But there is a tendency that when you win, the team wins, and when you fail, the rider fails. It is also true that the riders do the opposite, but in the case of Suzuki the riders have always done a lot as a team. And that, with Davide Brivio, who was a person who knew how to manage the group and egos very well, made this team a big family. Whoever is inside understands that this has been totally lost; this is a team that is no longer a family.
Having said that, the agent was sympathetic towards the situation of Suzuki members, without their future assured: ‘I also put myself in the shoes of the people who are working here and have to look for life because next year they will have to continue paying for the children’s schooling, the mortgage on the house and put food on the table’.