Following the shock news of Suzuki’s premier-class exit, rumours soon emerged of a potential Leopard-Aprilia project stepping in tꦦo take over the grid places.

However, at Le Mans, Kotur told Sky Sports Italia that moving from Moto3 to MotoGP would be a huge step and not possible for Leopard in time for 2023. The team confirmed his words to mahbx.com.

Leopard has won the Moto3 world championship with Danny Kent (2015), curren✱t Suzuki star Joan Mir (2017) and Lorenzo Dalla Porta (2019). The team is currently 🐭second in this year's standings with reigning title runner-up Dennis Foggia.

Forward Racing, which competed in MotoGP from 2012-2015, told mahbx.com t🔯hat while Suzuki’s exit could be a good opportunity for teams looking to join the premier-class, they a🦩re focussed on developing their MV Agusta Moto2 project... But 'never say never'.

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Such comments from Independent teams follow staওtements by Aprilia Racing CEO Massimo Rivola, who told pit lane reporter Amy Reynolds at Le Mans: “I don’t think Dorna wants a [new] satellite team to replace a constructor [Suzuki].”

If that is the case, the only existing Independent team able to potentially join forces with April🐎ia next season looks to be Razlan Razali’s RNF squad.

RNF currently has a𝔍 one-year Yamaha deal, with an extension decision due by the end of June. The ﷽other Independent teams have multi-year contracts with their respective manufacturers.

“We are thinking about eventually providingꦦ two more bikes, if we f꧂ind the right partner,” Rivola added. “We would need to decide in a very short name [for 2023]. It would be important to do it in a professional way and also not lose any performance with the factory team.”

Aprilia sits second in the world championship with Aleix E෴spargaro, who gave the factory its first premier-class victory in Argentina this season. Espargaro’s four podiums since Silverstone 2021 mean Aprilia has lost technical concessions for next season.

Dorna: '22 riders is okay'

Meanwhile, Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta has repeated the information given in the company’s initial statement💙 on Suzuki's planned exit, saying they have received interest “from manufacturers and individua♛l teams” to take over the Japanese factory’s place.

But Ezpeleta also made clear that Suzuki might not be replaced a♏t all, at least for 2023.

🔜“If we have a championship with five manufacturers 🌞and six private teams it is exactly the same as we had last year; 22 riders is okay. Depending on the proposals, we will decide if we want to replace Suzuki or continue as it is, without Suzuki.”

It is hard to imagine that a new ‘ground up’ MotoGP project could be proposed, signed off and created from🍷 scratch in time for the 2023 season, which officially starts with the Valencia post-race test in early November.

Instead, the most likely options for the arrival of a ‘new’ manufacturer in 2023 would be to rebrand an existing machine - as♊ KTM does with GASGAS, Husqvarna and CFMoto in Moto3 or, less likely, by someone taking over the doomed GSX-RR project.

In either case, to avoid receiving unfair access to the concessions package available for new constructors, rivals would expect any🍷 'rebranded' or 'reborn' bikes to be grouped with the original design for the purposes of the tech🐓nical rules.