        The news of Suzuki&rsquo;s withdrawal from MotoGP has taken everyone by surprise. Not least Franco Uncini, who is now in charge of safety but who rode for the Hamamatsu manufacturer for many years, even winning&nbsp;the title with them in 1982. The Italian tells us what he thinks of this move, one that, for us on the outside at least, appears inexplicable. How did you take the news? &ldquo;Very, very badly. I&rsquo;m astonished and also a bit disappointed because at a time like this, when Suzuki is highly competitive with two strong riders, a good team, a bike fighting for the title, to leave is a very big mistake. I&rsquo;m disappointed and saddened because, in my particular case, I&rsquo;ve always followed Suzuki a little more closely.&rdquo; And it&rsquo;s so unexpected. &ldquo;Absolutely, but thinking about it, it&rsquo;s similar to my story. In 1982 I won the title, Joan Mir won it in 2020. The withdrawal came soon after and, even back then, it came as a surprise. I&rsquo;m a little shocked, no one expected it and I&rsquo;m really sorry because it&rsquo;s a great name, a great bike, with great riders. The news is a little peeving.&rdquo; And they&rsquo;d just hired Livio Suppo as team manager. &ldquo;So they clearly set out with the intention of continuing and doing well, so I don&rsquo;t understand how it all changed so quickly. It seems they&rsquo;ve made this important decision very fast. And it&rsquo;s a big step backwards. At the start of the season, they were thinking about expanding with a satellite team, and now we have the exact opposite.&rdquo; There is talk of financial issues relating to the pandemic, what do you think? &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t know the real reasons, but this was the kind of excuse used in &rsquo;83 too. At the time, they talked of economic reasons and putting more of a focus on production. So budget-related issues, or at least something to do with the market crisis. Is that an excuse? I wouldn&rsquo;t know. I don&rsquo;t know the real reasons, but I have the impression the decision&rsquo;s been made in a hurry.&rdquo; What do you think this will mean for MotoGP? &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a significant loss, but luckily we have many other manufacturers that will continue. It&rsquo;s just one less piece in the puzzle. Right now, Aprilia has become competitive, Ducati is successful and the others are also at a high level. MotoGP will continue without Suzuki. It&rsquo;s a pity that a great manufacturer will be missing. The riders, Mir and Rins, will stay because they&rsquo;ll move elsewhere, they&rsquo;ll have no problems.&rdquo; Translated by Heather Watson Dorna warns Suzuki: &ldquo;Many manufacturers are ready to enter MotoGP&rdquo;       

<p>The 1982 world champion remarks on the Hamamatsu manufacturer&rsquo;s decision to leave MotoGP, drawing a comparison with what happened in his day</p>

Exclusive, Uncini on Suzuki’s withdrawal: “I’m saddened, it’s like déjà-vu”

        Franco Uncini was the first to celebrate Joan Mir&rsquo;s championship title, beneath the Valencia podium. The Italian knows how it feels to become world champion in the reigning class with Suzuki, because he himself achieved this feat in 1982. &ldquo;I was very pleased to celebrate Suzuki&rsquo;s latest title with Mir&rdquo;, Franco Uncini tells us during our exclusive interview. &ldquo;I was kind of prepared for the invitation, with all the superstition that involves. I identified a little with Mir, as I knew what he was feeling. Winning a world championship is unique!&rdquo; Suzuki is like a family  How did you feel? &ldquo;I was very happy, because Suzuki is like a family, made up of people that make you feel at home and I always felt like part of the family, dressed in my own clothes of course, because I couldn&rsquo;t celebrate as a member of Race Direction but as Franco Uncini, world championship with the Suzuki family.&rdquo; What do you think of Suzuki&rsquo;s title with Mir? &ldquo;I was very pleased also because Suzuki has seen some ups and downs in recent years, although you could see they had a good foundation. And now the team and the great work done by Davide Brivio have resulted in a complete, competitive package. &ldquo;Mir did a great job, knowing how to interpret the bike and he also did well in the way he conducted the championship. The same goes for Alex Rins, though he was a little less consistent than Mir. But in the end Rins is ready to finish up in second place, which would be another success for Suzuki. I don&rsquo;t think Suzuki has ever finished one-two in the world championship, so that would be great, another first that can motivate them moving forward.&rdquo; What&rsquo;s been Suzuki&rsquo;s strength? &ldquo;The real advantage might be that they've found the &lsquo;right&rsquo; test rider. During my Suzuki years, the bike was well balanced and there was a great tester who would often come to race in the championship. He was called Kawasaki &ndash; really! &ndash; and he was very competitive. He would really push when testing the bike to develop its potential. "But the following year saw Yamaha in difficulty and test rider Kawasaki went from Suzuki to Yamaha. Suzuki got a new tester but he wasn&rsquo;t as good as the previous guy. My bike was the XR45, the X indicating the cylinders, R for Racing, 45 the project number. It was the test rider who would give the project the final OK and the year after I won the title, in 1983, my bike was nowhere near as competitive as the year before, in fact that was the last year Suzuki competed with a factory team for a while. The following years people said Suzuki was still there with a factory outfit but that wasn&rsquo;t the case. So this year I think Suzuki has also found an effective test rider.&rdquo; A championship without Marquez  This has been a rather odd year though, without Marquez&hellip; &ldquo;Yes, Marc Marquez was missing, not just any rider, but the man who up until the end of last year was clearly the strongest. His absence has been felt, but at the same time it&rsquo;s made for a more open, hard-fought championship. An icon was missing this year, but it&rsquo;s been a great championship.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s difficult to compare different periods, but which do you think was toughest, your championship season or Mir&rsquo;s? &ldquo;A world championship is never easy and very few have secured the win with minimal effort. My title was hard earned and so was Joan&rsquo;s. But a world champion is always a world champion&rdquo;, concludes Franco Uncini. Translated by Heather Watson Coach Poggiali and his tips for winning a championship: &ldquo;Consistency is key&rdquo;       

<p>&ldquo;In celebrating after the win, I identified with him and knew exactly what he was feeling as world champion. Suzuki? Like a family&rdquo;, Franco Uncini tells us</p>

2 risultati per 'EN franco uncini'

Exclusive, Uncini on Suzuki’s withdrawal: “I’m saddened, it’s like déjà-vu”

Exclusive, Uncini: “Mir did very well, also in the way he conducted his championship”