Suzuki entered a works team in the 500cc Grand Prix World Championship in 1974 with Barry Sheene and Jack Findlay riding the Suzuki RG500, a square-four two-stroke designed by Makoto Hase. The RG500 proved competitive from its first race, with Sheene finishing second at the 1974 French Grand Prix. The team's first win came in 1975 at the Dutch TT.
In 1976 Suzuki ceded direct control of the Grand Prix programme to their British importer Suzuki GB, allowing the factory to focus on four-stroke road bike development. Sheene won back-to-back 500cc riders' championships in 1976 and 1977. After Sheene, riders including Randy Mamola, Lucchinelli (who won the 1981 title for the Gallina satellite team), and Franco Uncini kept Suzuki at the front before the factory withdrew support at the end of 1983.
Suzuki returned with factory-supported entries in 1987, with Takumi Itoh and a young Kevin Schwantz riding the new Suzuki RGV500. Schwantz immediately showed blistering pace. Suzuki made a full return to Grand Prix racing in 1988, with Schwantz recording two wins and finishing eighth overall. By 1989 he had accumulated six wins and finished fourth in the championship, establishing himself as one of the fastest riders on the grid.
The 1990 and 1991 seasons saw Schwantz win five races each year, finishing second and third in the championship respectively, as he battled Wayne Rainey and Mick Doohan. In 1992 Schwantz scored one win and finished fourth, with teammate Doug Chandler fifth.
In 1993, riding under the Lucky Strike Suzuki banner, Schwantz finally won his long-awaited first and only World Championship with four race wins. Teammate Alex Barros also scored a victory and finished sixth that year. The championship was a vindication of Schwantz's all-or-nothing riding style and Suzuki's perseverance across the title fight with Rainey.
In 1994 Schwantz recorded two wins and fourth in the standings, but early in the 1995 season he decided to retire from competition due to a persistent wrist injury. Without their talisman, Suzuki nonetheless achieved strong results: Daryl Beattie finished second in the 1995 championship with two wins in Schwantz's absence.
Scott Russell and then Anthony Gobert joined Beattie in 1996 and 1997 respectively, though neither replicated the heights of the Schwantz era. In 1998 Suzuki fielded an all-Japanese rider lineup with Nobuatsu Aoki and Katsuaki Fujiwara. Kenny Roberts Jr. joined in 1999 and took four wins, finishing second in the championship and delivering Suzuki their first win in four years.
Roberts Jr. became World Champion in 2000 with four victories. The team transitioned into the MotoGP four-stroke era from 2002 with the Suzuki GSV-R, though the early seasons proved difficult as the new machine was developed. Riders including John Hopkins, Chris Vermeulen, and Loris Capirossi kept Suzuki competitive across the 2000s. Vermeulen won Suzuki's first race under four-stroke rules at the 2007 French Grand Prix.
The team withdrew at the end of 2011 citing cost pressures, then returned in 2015 with the GSX-RR and a restructured operation led by Davide Brivio. Joan Mir won the MotoGP riders' title in 2020, the team secured the constructors' title the same year, and Suzuki announced withdrawal again in May 2022 before completing the season.
The Lucky Strike-sponsored years under Schwantz remain the most celebrated chapter of Suzuki's long Grand Prix history. Schwantz's fearless riding style on the RGV500 — spectacular saves, outright pace, and racing against adversity — made the Lucky Strike Suzuki livery one of the most iconic in 500cc racing. The 1993 championship win stands as the defining achievement of that era, closing a chapter opened by Sheene two decades before.