Team Suzuki Ecstar boss Davide Brivio says the manufactu꧙rer is closing on a decision to expand its efforts in MotoGP to include a satellite team in 2022, even if the current crisis brought on by the coronavirus could interfere with those plans.

Suzuki is just one of two manufacturers on the current MotoGP gri😼d – the other being Aprilia – not to have suppo🤡rt from an additional satellite team. It’s a policy the team has maintained for some time, even during the 2000s prior to its hiatus from the sport.

However, team boss Brivio has spoken of his desire to expand Suzuki’s interests on the MotoGP grid 🌌to include a satellite entry and run 𓄧four GSX-RRs to speed up bike development and provide an entry point for burgeoning riders.

For now plans are moving ahead, with Briꦕvio suggesting a satellite team could debut as early as 2022, though he warns a change in priorities as a result of the coronavirus means this could yet change.

"We had an idea to do this for 2022 and this is still on the table," he said. "For the moment, we’ve been conc🃏entrating on discussing the riders agreements but now I think we’ll let the top management focus on m🎶ore important company issues and then in a few weeks or a few months maybe we’ll try to have this discussion again and see what the situation is and what their intentions are.

“For us, it’s still open and a project we’re still working on. It’s something our racing departmentꦯ still wants to do but, of course, we have to go through the approval of top management. It’s difficult to say now, we have to wait and see. We’ll continue workin꧂g on it though."

As well as Suzuki, Aprilia is also expected to expand to four bikes from 2022 by delegating its satellite reꦰsponsibility to the Gresini Racing team that currently runs its MotoGP effort. Aprili♔a will then take its factory team fully in-house running out of its base in Noale.

The role of a satellite team has grown in recent years, with Ducati, Yamaha and KTM each now supplying two 2020-spec machines to the Pramac, Petronas SRT and Tech 3 teams for 20🔴20. It means, there will be just three non-current spec models on the grid now for Johann Zarco and Tito Rabat ꦇat Avintia Ducati and for Takaaki Nakagami at LCR Honda.