MotoGP – Marc VDS and Suzuki deal may not be done after all

Bruno Gomes

May 10, 2018

The Marc VDS team currently races Honda RC213V prototypes with Franco Morbidelli and Thomas Luthi. But they want to change next season to Suzuki

The financial problems that have been affecting the Marc VDS team lately, seem to have had some effects on the negotiations the team was having with Suzuki to become a satellite team for the Japanese manufacturer until 2021.

The deal was almost closed, in fact many sources had pointed that it was going to be made public during last weekend in Jerez, but with Marc van der Straten – Belgian beer billionaire and team owner – being in a collision course with Michael Bartholemy, the team’s manager, over rumours of financial impropriety, what was a done deal seems now to have fallen completely.

Suzuki management didn’t like to see the Marc VDS team involved in these kind of problems which may mean that the team’s future is uncertain. The deal to give Suzuki GSX-RR prototypes to Marc VDS is for the next three seasons, and this made Suzuki back off from the deal.

All this made the Marc VDS team release a statement reassuring they’ll stay committed to race in MotoGP until 2021

“To the people of the MotoGP paddock and the race fans. I have heard many rumours in the paddock this weekend about our team and I want make the situation clear for everyone. We will continue to race competitively, as we do now, until 2021. That is my intention and that is exactly what we will do”, said Marc van der Straten.

According to sources, the Marc VDS team was in talks earlier with Yamaha Racing, after Tech3 move to KTM. But the team wanted to give to Franco Morbidelli a factory bike, and Yamaha refused to do that much the same way they did to Tech3.

So, Marc VDS turned their focus on getting a deal with Suzuki, because the Japanese brand wants to increase their presence in MotoGP, and they even accepted to give two factory prototypes to Marc VDS from 2019 until 2021.

But this deal seems to have fallen, and even though Marc van der Straten assures his team will continue committed to race much in the same way they have until now, the rumours in the paddock may have caused bigger damages to the team than initially expected.