For years the premier class of motorcycling was dominated by japanese factories, but in recent years other manufacturers have been gaining prominence, some more than others. KTM was the latest to arrive and already has some wins, Aprilia fought for the title in 2022 and Ducati destroyed everything and everyone on all fronts in MotoGP.
Davide Brivio, who has been Suzuki's Team Manager since his return to the paddock and left at the end of 2020, with the team and riders' world titles, with Joan Mir, spoke of how the dynamics of european constructors have changed the way the paddock works... and influenced the 'modus operandi' of structures of japanese origin, quoted in 'Slick Magazine':
- The development of the motorcycles was done according to the habits of japanese companies: long planning, the work spread over several months until the end of the world championship, without rushing. That's why things arrived slowly. 'Do I need a chassis? It takes three months. And do you need a different engine? We'll talk about it next year'. European factories have accelerated this process, especially Ducati. But so is Aprilia, and KTM is slowly getting into the picture as well. The European factories were always very aggressive, but in some years they got it wrong, in my opinion. Sometimes they had many innovations that weren't tested as they should have been. Sometimes they go the wrong way, but they always kept the aggressive spirit and once they solve things, they continue with that mentality. And now it's an aggressive mentality: they're always introducing new parts, even small things, to continually try to improve the bike. And that's thanks to their aggressiveness, as they managed to challenge the way things were done before.