On the Record: Davide Brivio, Team Suzuki Ecstar

We are quite happy about what we have achieved. We had some good improvements, especially in the second half of the season.

We still struggle a little bit in the wet, but in the dry, from Brno and, especially, Silverstone, where we won the race, we were always in a position to fight for the podium. This is a great achievement.

Maverick Viñales was riding very well, using the potential of our bike. He did an incredible job this year, especially in the second half of the season.

In some races, like Japan and Australia, Aleix Espargaro was also in a position to fight for the podium. This was a very important sign for our development.

Now we are looking forward to continuing this job. We are going to face many changes in our team, mainly the riders.

For 2016, I said that our target was to come closer to the top three manufacturers—Honda, Yamaha, and Ducati. The target now is to try in all of the races to be in a position to fight for the podium.

We have very strong opponents—Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi, Maverick Viñales, and Jorge Lorenzo. The packages that we have to fight against are quite impressive.

We expect a lot from Andrea Iannone. We took Iannone because we think he is a top rider in MotoGP. He is capable of winning races.

Iannone is a strong fighter. It’s up to us to give him a good package and set up the bike to suit his style. He will guide us with development.

In the meantime, Alex Rins has to learn as much as he can. We think Rins is a good talent. He is very young—a new challenge.

I think the team is well balanced. We have one rider ready to go and another rider who can be at the top in the next years.

We don’t have a new bike for 2017. We will continue to evolve this project. We are working on improving the engine; our situation is less serious than last year.

We were a little bit more relaxed this year with nine engines. We had more possibilities to introduce development. With seven engines, you have to freeze development.

Last year, we had a big gap to cover. Now, our engine performance is at the level of the other Japanese bikes.

You will see a “middle-step” engine with a direct engine starter. This is the first step, not the version that we are going to use in Sepang or Phillip Island.

For the rest, there is nothing new. We will try to prepare some chassis parts for Sepang and Phillip Island.

Last year, we came up with a bike that was quite good in the chassis area but we had a lack of power—the speed was not enough.

The racing department did a brilliant job last winter, first of all improving the power of the engine and then introducing the seamless transmission. This allowed us to be more competitive.

We consider the project now quite well balanced in terms of the chassis. We will try to improve the power of the engine to get more performance. We are on schedule.

We need more experience in the electronic field, especially in the wet. We also have to more deeply analyze the ends of the races.

Last season, there were not so many expectations of Suzuki. Now, for 2017, there are more expectations. It’s a nice problem.

That’s why we’re here. The higher target you have, the more difficult the job. With Iannone, we can try to do it from the beginning.