Suzuki ponders new recruitment strategy

Suzuki will eventually have to follow the young rider recruitment strategies of rivals like Ducati and Yamaha if they are to break the big three’s domination of the four-stroke MotoGP era.

• Get the latest MotoGP news

That’s the view of current factory team boss Paul Denning, who believes Suzuki will have to be more aggressive in its recruitment drive to persuade young riders to join the Japanese factory in the future.

Ducati and Yamaha are the most recent factories to reap the rewards of investing in young talent, having gone out into the market to snatch Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo respectively.

Honda has been able to use its involvement in the 125 and 250 classes to mould the careers of Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso before they switched to the premier class.

Suzuki has just re-signed Italian veteran Loris Capirossi and Aussie Chris Vermeulen for the 2009 MotoGP world championship campaign, and Denning told MCN: “Without question we are always looking at where Suzuki’s next world champion is potentially coming from and that is absolutely under consideration.

“It is an important option but you are dealing with a human being and not some mechanical piece you can say definitely does or doesn’t work. But Yamaha have got two winners on their bikes, Honda has Dani for the long term and Ducati has Casey.

Other teams and manufacturers need their own special rider to take it to those guys so we have to focus on who could give us the best result, whoever it might be.”