MotoGP™ is always looking for closer racing, and technical regulations designed to create just that have been an incredible success. But one important part of the regulations is also the idea of concessions – with new manufacturers getting more leeway for development depending on their results. After a more difficult 2017, Team Suzuki Ecstar now have some of these concessions.
With no podiums last year, the Hamamatsu factory have gained some benefits first enjoyed when they came back to the Championship in 2015. One key thing is nine engines per rider throughout the course of the year, and they can change the spec – with factories without concessions instead allowed to use seven, with the spec frozen from the beginning of the season.
KTM are another who have to play by slightly different rules this year, with the Austrian factory now bound by the same fairing limitations as other factories – one per rider at the start of the season. Pieces can be removed from the homologated fairing, but only one change in design is allowed.