Swiss chassis manufacturer Suter has decided to step away from the 2018 Moto2 world championship.
Out of 24 teams on the grid, only one wanted to use their chassis for the upcoming season with was the Dynavolt Intact Team.
Suter will take a break from competition to focus on building their next generation chassis to accommodate the new Triumph 765cc engine change coming in 2019.
After the realization that only one out of 24 teams who decided to use the chassis made by the Swiss manufacturer for 2018, Suter decided that to completely pull out for the 2018 Moto2 world championship altogether. This is due to the fact that they see no sense in continuing their efforts for now as it can’t have any commercial benefit to the company.
The only team that was interested to use Suter’s chassis in 2018 was Dynavolt Intact Team with Xavi Vierge and Marcel Schrotter as their riders for the upcoming season. Since Suter has decided to sit out for 2018, the team has made the switch to Kalex instead.
Suter has had a lot of success in the earlier days of Moto2. When the intermediate category was first introduced, they won the first ever Moto2 race in Qatar and continued their success with the help of Marc Marquez prior joining the premiere class.
After Marquez made his way to the top of the league, the number of wins dropped for Suter and Kalex quickly took over with their rapidly-evolving race chassis. It’s hard to compete with a company that has won the intermediate championship five years running since 2013.
Things were already looking grim for Suter back in 2015 where only two teams used their chassis. 2016 didn’t fare any better where the only team that used their chassis that year pulled out after only two races in the beginning of the season. 2017 looked promising at first with Dominique Aegerter securing a podium (before being disqualified due to engine oil irregularity).
The entry from KTM for the very first time this year probably was the final nail of the coffin. KTM showed that they were competitive enough to fight for podiums even in their first year. Towards the end of the season, KTM even dominated last three races thanks to Miguel Oliveira and Brad Binder.
With that being said, Suter will continue their efforts by developing their next generation chassis to accommodate the major change for 2019 where Moto2 will be upgraded to using Triumph’s 765cc inline-three engine.
To know more about Triumph’s 765cc Moto2 initiative, CLICK HERE.
2018 will only see KTM, Kalex, NTS, Tech 3 and Speed Up competing for the final Moto2 season using the 600cc inline-four Honda engine.
Image source: MotoGP
