From a press release issued by Suzuki:

Team Suzuki News Service

SUZUKI GP TEAM GOES MICHELIN FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON

May 1st 2002
Hamamatsu, Japan.

Team Telefónica MoviStar Suzuki today announced that for the remainder of the 2002 Grand Prix season they will be switching back to the Michelin
tyres they had previously used for more than ten years.

The blue GSV-R V4 machines, ridden by former World Champion Kenny Roberts Jr. and GP winner Sete Gibernau, will be fitted with the French tyres from the Spanish GP at Jerez on May 5, the third of 16 championship rounds. At first, the Michelins will be 2001-spec tyres, with full support to follow after three to five races, in line with increased production of the latest tyres.

Suzuki and Dunlop will continue to cooperate in the famous World Superbike championship, and American Superbike championship as well as the domestic All-Japan series, in which the prototype GSV-R MotoGP machines will take part, albeit as non-scoring guest riders, as part of the powerful new prototype’s radically shortened development schedule.

The new 2002 season saw the biggest ever change in racing regulations, with the premier GP class open not only to the established 500cc two-strokes, but also to an exciting new generation of 990cc four-stroke prototypes. Suzuki recently joined the other important racing factories in fielding a machine for the first year of the new series.

In fact, the development programme of the new GSV-R had been shortened by a full year. The original plan was to race in 2003, but the machine’s strong performance during engine bench testing and early development led Suzuki to take the bold step of bringing the bike to the GP tracks one year earlier.

This was rewarded by another surprise for the factory. The still developing machine was so competitive that it finished second in the first-ever MotoGP race at Suzuka in Japan.

“I think many people were surprised by the performance at Suzuka” explained Telefónica MoviStar Suzuki GP team manager Garry Taylor.

“Instead of our projected testing programme, we suddenly realised we could now focus on actually trying to win races far earlier than we had originally anticipated. Without even starting our planned tyre development programme, the GSV-R has proven to be far more competitive than we had expected. Consequently the team has again been able to advance the overall machine development programme beyond the tyre development stage.

“The advantage is that not only do the riders have familiarity with the characteristics of the Michelins, but also the engineers. We have a vast amount of data on Michelins and it considerably reduces the number of variables in our development programme.”

Taylor stressed: “Nobody should think anything negative about Dunlop in this matter. They achieved second place for us at Suzuka, and put Kenny on the second row of the grid in South Africa.

“It’s simply that our focus has changed. The MotoGP team has different priorities from before, and they no longer include tyre development. Obviously this is a big step for Suzuki, but the reasoning shows that it’s not a move against Dunlop,” said Taylor.

“I’ve always said that we are serious about wanting to win races. This move simply shows that we really mean it,” concluded Taylor.