        A few days after the news broke re Davide Brivio&rsquo;s departure from the Suzuki team, MotoGP Project Leader Shinichi Sahara is interviewed by the Suzuki website and talks about the team&rsquo;s plans for 2021 and a possible satellite team for 2022. &ldquo;News of Davide&rsquo;s departure shocked us&rdquo;  Sahara starts the interview by talking about Brivio&rsquo;s decision, how it was taken by the team, and how the plans for 2021 will now change with a title to defend. &ldquo;It came as shocking news - begins the MotoGP Project Leader - I very much appreciate what Davide&rsquo;s done since coming to Suzuki. He arrived early on, soon after the project was born, and he was able to develop this and build a top team. We are affected of course, but I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;ll lose the way without him, because we&rsquo;ve always viewed things in the same way and agreed on the direction to take. We also have expert staff to help us manage everything. I fully trust in the team structure that we have and everyone else who has contributed to building this&rdquo;. He then adds: &ldquo;When Davide told the team, we were all shocked of course. But we soon focused on the next steps we need to take together. We&rsquo;ll be more united than ever because we all love this brand and we&rsquo;ll give 150% to tackle the new challenges in the best way.&rdquo; What impact will this situation have on the team? &ldquo;In my opinion, it shouldn&rsquo;t impact on anything moving forward - explains Sahara - We will work as we know how, and even harder than we did before winning the championship. Our attitude hasn&rsquo;t changed and we&rsquo;ll fight for the title once more with our strong riders, Mir and Rins&rdquo;. As for the riders, the Japanese comments: &ldquo;This won&rsquo;t affect our riders&rsquo; ability to fight for the title. We are already champions and have two young and talented riders. They know how to tackle problems or tough situations and manage the pressure. I&rsquo;m not at all worried in this regard. They are both real professionals and ready for the 2021 championship&rdquo;. MotoGP, Schwantz: &ldquo;Brivio's position is not an easy one to inherit&rdquo; &ldquo;We will find a solution internally&rdquo;  The MotoGP Project Leader then outlines plans for the team, starting with who will replace Davide Brivio as team manager. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s always important to optimise the team structure in order to obtain the best possible performance from each team member, and this is always true, even without Davide&rsquo;s departure. But I think everyone&rsquo;s quite professional and we have the know-how to move forward in the best possible way&rdquo;. &ldquo;I think we can manage the situation with the people inside Suzuki, and that&rsquo;s the best way for us - adds Sahara, providing a clue as to the next team manager &ndash; We know who we are, how we work, how we interact and what we need. We&rsquo;re not looking externally right now, we&rsquo;ll try to manage it by ourselves&rdquo;. Chicho Lorenzo: &ldquo;Brivio will be successful in Formula 1 too&rdquo; Riders and development  As for the 2021 season, the Project Leader explains the focus of GSX-RR development. &ldquo;As we&rsquo;ve done in the past, we&rsquo;re looking to improve all the performance areas of our bike without losing the good balance. We&rsquo;ll probably need to aim for better grid positions without losing any performance over race distance&rdquo;. It will also be important to manage the internal rivalry between Mir and Rins, but Sahara doesn&rsquo;t seem too worried. &ldquo;We need to avoid any serious mistakes in terms of development direction with the various data collected from our riders with their different high-level riding styles &ndash; he explains &ndash; They know the advantages of sharing data as it helps make the bike more competitive for them both&rdquo;. Will we see a new and improved Joan in 2021? &ldquo;He&rsquo;s still young and is about to begin only his third season with us, so there&rsquo;s still room to understand the bike and the team and improve. I imagine that, having won the championship, he&rsquo;s already gained in maturity and knows how to deal with pressure&rdquo;, comments the Suzuki Project Leader, keen to see how the world champion will be motivated by his team-mate. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll see if Rins becomes stronger too, battling with his team-mate. Last year he was in great shape but then he unfortunately got hurt, so this really conditioned his performance&rdquo;, adds Sahara in reference to number 42. MotoGP, is Rins the main 2021 title contender? &ldquo;We&rsquo;re considering various options for the satellite team&rdquo;  In light of last year&rsquo;s results, the Hamamatsu manufacturer looks to the future with confidence, despite a freezing of development for 2021. &ldquo;From an engineering standpoint, we always have new ideas with which to improve the bike. Fortunately our package wasn&rsquo;t bad in 2020, so we&rsquo;ll carefully develop the areas in which we&rsquo;re allowed to work. In any case, you never know how the new rules will affect things, but I think it&rsquo;s the same for all the manufacturers. The rules are the same for everyone, so we all have to ensure fair play&rdquo;, adds Sahara, who closes by touching on the possibility of a satellite team: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re still considering what might be the best solution. We might have more information during the season&rdquo;. Translated by Heather Watson Cagiva, Kocinski&rsquo;s winning C593 up for auction       

<p>Suzuki&rsquo;s Project Leader speaks for the first time following the news of Davide Brivio&rsquo;s move to F1: &ldquo;It shocked us, I appreciate what Davide&rsquo;s done since coming to Suzuki&rdquo;</p>

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MotoGP, Sahara and Brivio’s departure: “We can manage the situation”