Suzuki says poor 2017 "an investment for the future"

The Hamamatsu marque started the year with two new riders in Andrea Iannone and rookie Alex Rins, but both spent the majority of 2017 struggling to come to terms with the GSX-RR.

However, both Iannone and Rins spent the year gaining experience with Suzuki, and Brivio says that the team's poor results have resulted in a few positives that will make it stronger in 2018.

"Hopefully next year we will be able to put everything together," said Brivio. "The riders have experience of the bike and the bike should improve.

"I would say we take this difficult season as an investment for the future. It’s been interesting because we learnt a lot, we went through very difficult moments.

"We changed both riders, and this probably affected some of our decisions during the winter, technical choices. But at the same time we spent most of this season to recover from this problem.

"Also we learnt, we were forced to explore various areas where we could improve the bike.

"Looking at next year we will try to put everything together, try to improve the areas where we were weak this year. Hopefully we should have a better package for next season."

Despite an unsuccessful 2017, Brivio has no qualms about keeping the same rider line-up for another season, and doesn't regret changing both riders for 2017.

"Andrea is a rider capable of scoring podiums and getting great results, and I think he can do if we can fix all the problems," Brivio added.

"Alex Rins, we try to grow a potential rider for the future, which I believe he is. I’m happy about the choice, we just now have to make everything happen."

For 2018, Suzuki has regained the technical concessions it lost after 2016, including unrestricted engine development and unlimited testing for both Iannone and Rins.

Former World Superbike champion Sylvain Guintoli, who replaced the injured Rins in three races this year, has been strongly linked with a test rider role, including wildcard outings for 2018.

Iannone outlined the importance of having a test rider from Europe, something Italian squad Ducati has benefited from having and other Japanese manufacturers are looking into.

"It's definitely important to have a test rider in Europe," said Iannone. "Sylvain is a very experienced rider and we surely need him because we cannot do all the tests we would like."