Davide Brivio has a long career in MotoGP, during which he has worked with several renowned riders. However, he is particularly associated with the signing of Valentino Rossi for Yamaha in 2004 – a move that put the Iwata-based manufacturer back in the fight for titles against a dominant Honda.
In an interview with GPMag, the current team principal of Trackhouse Racing reflected on his work with Il Dottore, admitting it was a particularly good chapter in his career:
– A lot of fun! I have fantastic memories of that time. We’re still on very good terms today. It was also a great experience from a professional point of view. When Valentino arrived at Yamaha, we hadn’t won the 500cc title for 12 years. We wanted to bring him to Yamaha, but it wasn’t easy because, at the time, Honda dominated MotoGP. You regularly had three Hondas on the podium while Yamaha was struggling. Even within the Yamaha team some people weren’t keen on signing him. Their argument was: «If we win the championship, everyone will say it’s because Valentino is riding the bike. If we lose, it will be Yamaha’s fault. We have nothing to gain from this».
Convincing Yamaha to hire Rossi was challenging, but Brivio eventually succeeded… also attributing credit to another key figure: ‘In the end thanks to Masao Furusawa who took charge of the racing department, we managed to entice him to the team. Masao was a genius’.
The Italian has no doubts that Rossi had a decisive impact on Yamaha in MotoGP: ‘I think Valentino changed the history of Yamaha. The history of its racing department. Because he brought a winning mentality. He brought the positive pressure that comes from the fact that you have to win the race. With Valentino, sometimes, finishing second was like a disaster. On Sunday evenings in the hospitality, everyone was really down, no one spoke. It depended on the race, but it was often seen as a huge failure. That kind of mentality did a lot to change Yamaha’s philosophy. It changed the history of Yamaha in terms of results. But it also changed their approach to racing. From then on, Yamaha always wanted to sign top riders and win the championship’.