Davide Brivio (motorsport)

This article is about the motorsport manager. For the football player, see Davide Brivio.

Davide Brivio
Born (1964-07-17) 17 July 1964 (age 59)
Lecco, Italy
NationalityItaly Italian
OccupationMotorsport team manager

Davide Brivio (born 17 July 1964) is an Italian motorsport manager. He was previously the team manager of Yamaha's World Superbike and MotoGP efforts, as well as Suzuki MotoGP.[1] He formerly held positions as racing director and director of the young driver programme at Alpine F1 Team.[2]

Brivio is one of the most successful team managers in motorcycle Grand Prix racing history, having managed his teams and riders to 6 riders' titles, 4 constructors' titles, and 6 teams' titles.

Career

Having been born and raised in the vicinity of the legendary Monza racetrack, Brivio had an early passion for motorsport and was a keen motocross racer. He became the circuit commentator at his local motocross track and wrote reports for a motorcycle magazine.[3] Brivio graduated from the Istituto Villa Greppi in Monticello, Italy with a diploma in accountancy in 1982.[4]

World Superbike

Beginning in 1990, Brivio was the press officer for Fabrizio Pirovano in the World Superbike series. In 1992, he became team manager of the Belgarda Yamaha Racing Division in World Superbike. By the end of 1993, he moved to the Yamaha factory team in World Superbike, and by 1995 he was promoted to team manager, where he remained until the end of 2000. He continued in a consultancy role with the team for 2001.[3][4][5]

MotoGP

Yamaha

At the end of 2001 Brivio was promoted to team manager of the Yamaha MotoGP efforts. The sport was moving to four-stroke engines for 2002, and he was expected to bring relevant expertise from World Superbike which has used four-stroke engines since the series' inception. Brivio was instrumental in coaxing Valentino Rossi to move away from Honda and join Yamaha in 2004.[6] From 2004 to 2010, Brivio and Yamaha enjoyed success with 5 riders' championships (Rossi in 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009, and Jorge Lorenzo in 2010) and 4 constructors' championships (2005, 2008, 2009, 2010).[4][5]

Independent consultant

With Rossi's departure from Yamaha to Ducati at the end of 2010, Brivio left Yamaha and became a consultant to Rossi and his VR46 rider development program from 2010 to 2013.[5]

Suzuki

In 2013, Brivio joined Suzuki MotoGP as testing team manager ahead of their re-entry to the MotoGP class. When in 2014 the manufacturer officially announced their participation in the series starting from 2015, Brivio was named to be team manager of the revamped efforts.[4][7] Brivio placed a focus on signing younger promising riders from lower classes in order to develop them to fit with the Suzuki team and bike.[6] After a solid first season in 2015 with consistent points finishes for both riders, Brivio and Suzuki experienced their first successes in the class in 2016 with sophomore rider Maverick Viñales taking a podium in the 5th round in France and a win in Great Britain, followed by two more podiums to close out the year. With this success, the team however lost their development concessions, leading to a difficult 2017 with only sporadic points finishes and subsequently regaining their concessions.[8] A return in form in 2018 saw the team achieve 9 podiums that year, and in 2019 Álex Rins took two wins in America and Great Britain.

In 2020, Brivio's efforts came to fruition, with the team taking 2 wins and 11 podiums en route to the teams' championship and a riders' championship for Joan Mir, the first for Suzuki since 2000 with Kenny Roberts Jr.[9]

In January 2021, Suzuki and Brivio announced that he would be leaving the Suzuki team and MotoGP as whole.[1]

Formula One

In January 2021, Brivio became the racing director of Alpine F1 Team.[10] In early 2022, Brivio was moved out of the F1 team to focus on Alpine's young driver programme and oversee potential forays into other motorsport categories as 'Director of Racing Expansion Projects'.[11][12] In December 2023, Alpine announced that the Italian would be leaving the organization by the end of the year, sparking speculation of a return to MotoGP.[2][13]

References

  1. ^ a b McLaren, Peter (6 January 2021). "CONFIRMED: Davide Brivio leaves Suzuki MotoGP ahead of F1 switch". Crash.net. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  2. ^ a b Baldwin, Alan (12 December 2023). Davis, Toby (ed.). "Brivio to leave Alpine F1 amid speculation of MotoGP return". Reuters.com. Reuters. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
  3. ^ a b McLaren, Peter (20 February 2003). "Q&A: Davide Brivio - Fortuna Yamaha Team Director". Crash.net. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d "Linkedin Profile - Davide Brivio". LinkedIn. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  5. ^ a b c Aglio, Matteo (6 January 2021). "MotoGP, From SBK to success with Rossi and Suzuki: Brivio, the Miracle Man". GPOne.com. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  6. ^ a b Oxley, Mat (7 January 2021). "Davide Brivio – the man who made Yamaha and Suzuki MotoGP kings". Motor Sport Magazine. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  7. ^ "Suzuki return to MotoGP™ with Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Viñales in 2015 | MotoGP™". MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 30 September 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  8. ^ Puigdemont, Oriol (9 November 2017). "Suzuki set to regain MotoGP technical concessions after poor 2017". Autosport.com. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  9. ^ "Davide Brivio: Jack of all trades becomes a master of one". MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 16 November 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  10. ^ "Alpine F1 Team announce ex-Suzuki MotoGP chief Davide Brivio as new Racing Director". www.formula1.com. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
  11. ^ Noble, Jonathan (17 February 2022). "Why Alpine has abandoned its no team boss structure". Autosport.com. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
  12. ^ "Brivio admits F1 role at Alpine has changed". www.grandprix.com. 20 March 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
  13. ^ Duncan, Lewis (12 December 2023). "Davide Brivio to leave Alpine Racing after three years". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 12 December 2023.