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Reigning MotoGP world champion Joan Mir does not believe he could have scored his impressive Styrian Grand Prix podium finish without Suzuki’s new ride height adjustment device, which finally arrived in time for the Red Bull Ring race.
Mir has been crying out for the factory to deliver the new device, which the rest of the MotoGP grid has already been using for some time.
He said its impact was instant, and gave him the edge to finally get his title defence going.
Asked if his second place would’ve been achievable without it, Mir replied: “I think not. I think here in Austria it’s really important, and without the device to be as strong as today would have been difficult.
“The device isn’t an advantage compared to the others – it just means that we start with the same conditions as the others.
“Now we must continue improving it, because it’s only the first prototype and there is margin to improve it.
“We must work on the details of the bike once we get the second or third evolutions.
“The others have been using this for a long time, and it means that we need more information.
“I’m really happy, because it was an important podium. The team in Japan worked really hard, and finally to have this is a really great reward for them.”
While he noticed an immediate impact on acceleration from the device, which locks out the suspension on corner exit to ensure better drive by not wasting energy squatting the bike, Mir said the fact Suzuki is only on its first version means it will take some time before he’s truly happy with its effect.
“We didn’t expect to use it all the way through the weekend because it’s a new thing that they weren’t able to test a lot in Japan because there was no time,” Mir explained.
“I had it in my mind that I wanted to use it for all the laps to get as much information as possible and in the end I’m happy.
“This is something that we have to analyse, because it’s only the first time that we’ve been able to do one race with it. This is why it was so important to finish a race with it.
“Maybe it makes more [tyre] drop at the end of the race, but I don’t know for sure. We have to work on this and see if the consumption is bigger.
“It’s also why on Saturday I wanted to try it all day, to make it automatic in my mind.
“It’s the same for everyone – at first it’s not easy to have one lever to think about in the corner. It has to be automatic.
“But I saw that I had more acceleration. If you feel nothing then you’d forget, but when you feel something then it’s easy to remember.”
The device also has a benefit for getting off the line fast. The Race understands that at both Red Bull Ring race starts, Mir took 0.2s off his previous fastest 0-100km/h time.
While conceding that it would have made his title defence – which has so far been somewhat lacklustre, much easier had Suzuki been able to start the season with it – Mir was also quick to avoid blaming Suzuki’s engineers for the delay in adopting the revolutionary new component.
The concept was first trialled by Ducati at the end of the 2019 season.
Instead, Mir was full of praise for his team, adamant that it had reacted well to the urging from him and team-mate Alex Rins to take the GSX-RR’s development down a path very different from Suzuki’s usual direction.
“In the end, this is really easy to understand,” said the 23-year old.
“We were the only ones not using the device. It means that we started at a disadvantage to the others.
Before, we could see some using it and some not, but now we can see everyone using it because it works. It gives more acceleration, and this is clear.
“I don’t know what position I would be in if I had started the first test in Qatar with the device, but I’m sure that we could have got better performance and that now we could have a device more developed than this one.
“We are a bit late, maybe, it’s true. But when they realised that we needed it, they worked and they made it in one month. This is something that I really appreciate.
“It could be better to have it a bit before, this is true, and we can ask what would have happened if we had it before. But at this moment I’m proud of them.
“You could see that they are able to develop chassis, make small things in the engine, they work in a certain way. Normally these devices are more for Ducati.
“But once they realised that it works, they made something that they’ve never done in the past, this type of technology.
“There are things that Ducati use that the other manufacturers don’t, and we don’t have to copy Ducati.
“But it’s true that in this case they were the first ones to develop one thing that works for everyone.
“Once we see that not only Ducati but more manufacturers are starting to use something, then we don’t have to wait this long again.”
Mir is now up to third in the championship, but still 41 points away from leader Fabio Quartararo of Yamaha.
