08With testing taking place just days after the final round at Valencia, it’s important to hit the ground running – especially with two new riders joining Team SUZUKI ECSTAR in the shape of Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins.“At the beginning of the 2016 season, I remember we said that our target was to continue getting closer-and-closer to the top,” explained Brivio. “So, the target for 2017 is to be more consistent in this fight for the podium and do it on a regular basis. We expect a lot from Iannone; we signed him because we think he is a strong rider and capable of winning races. We signed him before his first victory in Austria, as we already had the feeling he can be a race winner. It’s up to us to give him a good package, a good bike, and to set-up the bike in a way that can suit his riding style. With Alex Rins we want to do what we did with Maverick and help ‘grow’ a rookie rider and to help him become as competitive as possible. We know Alex is a talented rider, but we are aware he may need some time to get acquainted to a MotoGP machine; and for this our experience will help.”The first tests at Valencia after the final race of 2016 proved to be a difficult baptism for Rins, with a heavy crash on the second day of testing ruling him out for a further month due to a back injury which – thankfully – was not serious. But Iannone bounced-back from a series of crashes during the Valencia test to take an impressive fourth overall on the second day.Brivio has admitted that there will not be an ‘all-new’ GSX-RR for the 2017 season, but rather an evolution of what the team already has. “Our basis is already pretty-good,” he explained. “So, we will proceed with further improvements, step-by-step. We are working to improve the engine; last year we had a big gap to close in the engine performance, but this year we are in a different situation as our performance is comparable with our competitors. We will try to improve further, because riders never have enough power and we know that competitors will improve over the winter. We are working on some chassis parts for the Sepang and Phillip Island tests, but we will carefully evaluate if they are real improvements before adopting them.” The challenges of MotoGP do not end at the final round of the season: They simply begin again for the next…AND NOW: 2017SUZUKI TESTING STARTED
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