Suzuki: We need to regularly contend for wins in 2017
Suzuki MotoGP team boss Davide Brivio says the manufacturer must target regularly contending for race wins in 2017 after its breakthrough success last year.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
In its second season back in MotoGP after a three-year absence, Suzuki claimed its first victory since 2007 with Maverick Vinales in last September's British Grand Prix.
Vinales took three other podium finishes during the year and finished fourth in the championship, behind Honda's Marc Marquez and Yamaha pair Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. Teammate Aleix Espargaro matched his 2015 position of 11th.
Suzuki will have two new riders for the 2017 campaign, Ducati convert Andrea Iannone and Moto2 graduate Alex Rins, and Brivio says
"We never said 'we want to win in three years, in five years or whatever'," Brivio told Motorsport.com's sister title Autosport. "Clearly we would like to be a championship contender as soon as possible.
"The target was to get close to the Ducati and then close to Yamaha and Honda. We kind of did that, we won a race, we got a podium.
"Normally we started the race with the possibility to fight. Now the next step is to maybe be regularly race win contenders.
"Of course this is the most difficult part, but that's what we have to do next."
In 2016, Suzuki scored 56.37 percent of the points of the manufacturers' championship winner, Honda, compared to 33.66 percent in 2015.
Brivio says he was more satisfied by how much Suzuki had closed the gap to Honda and Yamaha than by having won a race.
"I think we should be satisfied and we should be happy with what we have done," Brivio said.
"We didn't really fix clear targets, clear expectations before the season but the highlight of the win in Silverstone has been great for us, a fantastic achievement.
"We scored four podiums in total but the most important thing - we reached one target - was to come close to the top group and try to fight for the podium sometimes.
"In the second half of this season, we clearly reached this target because in the dry we were regular podium contenders, in the last five, six, seven races, with both riders.
"It has been a very good season from this perspective."
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