Loris Capirossi

MotoGP outfit team Rizla Suzuki’s new engine development was pushed forward for this past weekend’s race at Barcelona, the Rizla Suzuki team in an attempt to redress a deficit in power for the GSV-R compared to the other MotoGP machines.This however caused the Rizla team to roll out the new motor spec for race day, which eventually ending up with either a failure of the engine during the race, which is what happened to Australian Chris Vermeulen, or a lack of necessary parts for Monday’s post-race test.

This is why the veteran Loris Capirossi was back with the previous version of the Suzuki power source for a day of experimentation, However the veteran Capirossi did not feel that the regression had too much of an adverse effect on his plans for the next race of the MotoGP season at Assen.

The veteran said “We had a full day in which to develop the bike, and we used it to try a different chassis and a different cowling. As regards the engine, we are still at the stage where we can use either the old one or the new one,” he then added with a reserved analysis of the new engine’s capabilities.

“It’s maybe a little more powerful, but the main thing is the character. It makes the bike easier to ride. We can say that it’s a step forward, but we need a bigger one. Luckily we don’t need a really strong engine for Assen, so maybe there we will be competitive also,” said Capirossi.

Capirossi's crew chief Stuart Shenton then added“I think that we can be a lot closer straight away in Assen. The new engine spec certainly helped us in this last race, In an ideal world we would have used it for this test, but we have to save the parts for the next race. I don’t think it hurt us too much today though.”

Loris Capirossi is set to race at Assen with a Suzuki for the first time at the next round,In previous years he had been missing due to injury.

We eagerly wait to see the results with the Suzuki at Assen.