Since losing star rider Maverick Vinales to Yamaha, Suzuki has struggled to recapture its form of 2016, when it took its first grand prix win since 2007 at Silverstone with the Spanish rider.

Vinales' replacement Andrea Iannone lies 15th in the points standings, with a best finish of seventh in the first five races of 2017, while Alex Rins' rookie campaign has been marred by injury.

Suzuki's poor start to the year comes at a time when MotoGP's satellite outfits are finalising their plans for next season, with Aspar and Avintia having both recently concluded deals to stay aligned to Ducati.

That leaves only Honda outfits LCR and Marc VDS as well as Ducati satellite squad Pramac as potential customers for 2018.

Rival manufacturers Aprilia and KTM have also stated their intention to field extra bikes next year, and Suzuki team manager Brivio believes the chances of more GSX-RRs being on the 2018 grid are now slim.

"Suzuki is a very large company, but the budget it dedicates to racing is not so high," Brivio told Motorsport.com. "Creating a satellite team would deplete the factory team's resources.

"Our progression has stopped a bit, let's say it's on 'standby'. We are afraid that losing the resources that would be allocated to a satellite team may cause us problems."

"Those two extra bikes would be a great help in obtaining data. But Suzuki has never had a satellite team. Moreover, this is the first time the team has been totally in-house."