Cal Crutchlow in Suzuki talks

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Suzuki could offer Cal Crutchlow an early escape from his Ducati hell.

The British rider’s personal manager Bob Moore met with senior Suzuki management during the recent Catalunya race in Barcelona, with the 28-year-old one of several big name stars linked with the Japanese factory for 2015.

Crutchlow could move to spearhead Suzuki’s factory assault in MotoGP next season because he has a clause in his Ducati contract that allows him to leave halfway through a two-year deal.

The former World Supersport champion has admitted he is looking at his options, with his 2014 turning into a nightmare.

Crutchlow has finished two out of the six races he’s started for Ducati this season and he has been plagued by horrendous luck.

He was Britain’s most successful premier class rider since Barry Sheene in 2013 on a Tech 3 Yamaha, but this season he has only finished inside the top six once.

Suzuki team boss Davide Brivio, who has also met with representatives of several top riders, including Andrea Dovizioso, Andrea Iannone and Aleix Espargaro, confirmed to MCN that he’d met Moore to discuss Crutchlow’s future.

Brivio, who will lead Suzuki’s return to MotoGP for the first time since 2011, told MCN: “We have spoken to Cal. Being in a factory team is something interesting because we will be putting all efforts into just two riders and it is nice to be part of that. It is well known that Cal has an option to decide if he will continue with Ducati next season, so I imagine before he takes that decision he wants to look at the alternatives. I don’t think the alternative is to stay home, so if I am Cal, before I decide whether to continue or not at Ducati, I would look around and see what is available and I guess this is what he is doing with us.”

Brivio also admitted he had met with Dovizioso, (Aleix) Espargaro and Iannone recently but he denied Iannone’s claim that he had received a formal offer to leave Pramac Ducati after a series of impressive performances in 2014.

Brivio added: “We didn’t make any formal proposal but we gave them some ideas in what we are thinking in terms of conditions. We went into some detail but it was just a verbal discussion to give them an idea in case they might expect a formal proposal.”

Asked if Crutchlow, Dovizioso and Espargaro were preferred candidates, Brivio added: “They are three that we are interested in. It is not a very long list but it is not just a two or three name list. I think it is correct that we try and understand who is available but it is also important if the rider is really motivated to join our challenge. We are a challenge because we are not racing in MotoGP and it is difficult to judge the potential of our bike. So you have to trust in Suzuki and what we can do. And we need to understand which rider is willing to take this challenge and risk.”

Brivio said he was also confident that Suzuki could compete on financial terms with other factories to secure the talent they’ve targeted for 2015 and beyond and he said: “I think we are able to make interesting proposals and I think we can compete financially. The money shouldn’t be the priority. We are a factory and we want to pay a reasonable level but we don’t want the money to be the major point of discussion. We are similar to Ducati because everybody is waiting for the new bike and nobody knows what it will be like.”

Crutchlow remains cagey about his future plans, with rumours linking him with a surprise switch to Honda emerging in Assen this week.

The 28-year-old said in Holland yesterday: “Thinking about options for next year, I have no other thought but racing the bike now. It makes zero difference what is on the table. My priority is to be at the front with Ducati. I’ve never had another motive. My plan when I came to Ducati was to win and at the moment it isn’t happening. That's just the situation. You have some good years and some bad years. I've not said anything about going anywhere else and Ducati have not announced that I'm doing otherwise. We're looking forward to the future and I'm not interested in any other manufacturer. We have to continue trying to improve the speed and not worrying about contracts. It is not going to make me go faster or help me go round the corner or brake better if I have any other feeling on my mind.”

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