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Suzuki ended the 2014 eni FIM Superbike World Championship season fifth in the Manufacturers’ Championship, with riders Eugene Laverty and Alex Lowes tenth and 11th in the Riders’ standings. With 2015 now underway, Paul Denning (Team Manager for Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) explains what the quest for more success involves this year.

“We had decent winter testing, but we also did going into 2014 and the overall championship result didn’t work out anywhere near what we were hoping to achieve,” Denning candidly states in an exclusive interview with WorldSBK.com. “The bike seems to be a little bit more competitive under the new regulations, the engine spec seems to be working quite nicely for the Suzuki and, if there was a gap to the very fastest factory bike, it seems to be a bit smaller. We are hoping to be more consistent. We showed flashes of brilliance over the course of last year but made too many mistakes over the course of the season; not necessarily by the riders, but by the team, and at some tracks we just didn’t get the bike working well.”

Hoping Suzuki can become a ‘thorn in the side’ of those at the front of the field this year, Denning went on to declare what can be expected of riders Alex Lowes and new recruit Randy de Puniet, who steps across from the world of MotoGP:

“Last year, whenever Alex went to a track that he knew, like Donington Park or Assen, he scored podiums and did quite well. Certainly this year is going to be a huge step forward in that he knows the tracks, the bike and the team and he has understood a lot about the electronic control strategies. He is a far more rounded motorcycle racer now than he was a year ago. 12 months ago, I think he felt the pressure of being the British Superbike champion who was coming into World Superbike, which didn’t always work. I think he has taken a more mature attitude and quieter approach towards the championship this year.

“On his day, Randy has raced against and beaten the very best riders in the world in MotoGP. He ended up riding a package that was not competitive and I think he found that quite demotivating. He is really positive about being on a competitive bike and seems to enjoy the feeling of the GSX-R. I think the biggest challenge for Randy is that he has not raced since the end of 2013. These guys go so fast – in the Jerez test, we saw how close the lap times were to the MotoGP bikes, despite the regulation changes – so it’s quite a big ask for Randy to just jump up to that level straight away. He’s got a lot to learn on the bike and to find his racing mojo again but, as the season builds, I hope for him to be very competitive.”

Two weekends ago, the season-opener of 2015 at Phillip Island in Australia delivered mixed results for Suzuki. Lowes qualified fifth, in the middle of the second row, before going on to finish ninth in Race 1 and retire from Race 2 with technical problems. De Puniet continued to feel the effects of a heavy crash in pre-race testing, failing to score in the first race before managing seventh in the second, which is the team’s best result of the season so far. The Suzuki challenge will continue in mid-March as WorldSBK visits Thailand for the first time.