Suzuki will not have a holeshot device for Qatar

Although the Hamamatsu maker is known to be preparing its own version of the device to help improve the start, Rins told Motorsport.com that he and teammate Joan Mir will have to forego it at the start of the season on March 9th.

“It was originally supposed to be ready for this test, but now we know that we can’t count on it in the first race of the season either,” said Rins during the tests in Qatar.

“The engineers are working on it, but we don’t yet know when we can test it.”

Rins was one of the first to notice Ducati using the device when he noticed Jack Miller’s bike was crouching around corners at last year’s Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.

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While Ducati has already developed its Holeshot device so that it can be used not just during the start but throughout the race, other manufacturers are at different stages of development.

Five of the six 2020 Yamahas in Qatar were equipped with the device, all four factory bikes and one of the two M1s were used by Petronas SRT rider Fabio Quartararo.

“We’re still fine-tuning because the starts have become an important part of the races and every help makes a difference,” said Valentino Rossi.

Honda’s Marc Marquez, meanwhile, was more cryptic, saying, “When one brand finds something new, the others explore their options.

“This starting system, for example, is already used by Yamaha and we’re trying it out, even though it doesn’t work the way we’d like it at the moment.”

While Ducati, Yamaha and Aprilia all demonstrated their holeshot devices in action at training starts on the start-finish straight in Qatar, Marquez in particular did not.

Aprilia has been using its own version of the device since last year, which lowers the front of the bike instead of the rear, while KTM is expected to introduce it on their bikes as well, having been used in motocross for a number of years.

“The truth is that our starts in MotoGP have always been very good and we haven’t needed them at the moment,” said Pol Espargaro. “But since everyone is starting to use it, we will surely copy it from motocross and apply it as soon as possible.”