The tests this week in Losail marked the debut of Davide Brivio within Trackhouse Racing, as team manager – less than two weeks after his hiring by the MotoGP’s newest team was announced. The riders will be Miguel Oliveira and Raúl Fernández, who will have Aprilia motorcycles.
The Italian, who has extensive experience in the premier class, explained to the press how he joined the American project: ‘I finished my previous experience at the end of last year. I was waiting to see. I was in contact with PJ [Rashidi, founder and president], who was in the team, because I was actually free, maybe to help the team, to do something together. I had a good conversation with him. Then I became interested, “let’s see what happens”. Then I received a call from Justin [Marks, owner] and he asked me if I wanted to be fully involved in the team – but at the last minute, very recently. Of course, I was happy to do something’.
After the initial contacts, Brivio visited Trackhouse Racing headquarters in the United States of America and ended up becoming definitively interested in joining: ‘It was very easy for Justin to convince me, because I have always loved American sports, I have always wanted to understand more about NASCAR – now I have no more excuses! Seriously, the Trackhouse team in the USA is something serious, a great organization, a successful team. That also makes me very excited and interested – this established, strong team in NASCAR also wants to enter MotoGP, be successful, learn as much as possible, and be here in MotoGP. Trackhouse sees MotoGP as an opportunity, it is a company operating in motorsports – of course, business in motorsports. And MotoGP is a great opportunity because of the audience that follows MotoGP, the success that MotoGP has worldwide, it is a global sport – so it is also an opportunity for Trackhouse to expand beyond the USA‘.
On the other hand, the former leader of Yamaha and Suzuki sees the human potential of Trackhouse, as well as the potential added value of the project for MotoGP itself: ‘I think we can enjoy working. I believe I can enjoy working on this project because Justin is also the owner and is directly involved in the project, he wants to learn, wants to understand, he already knows several things about MotoGP. Of course, he understands racing by being a rider – he is still a rider in the sense of wanting to win. It’s interesting, it’s very good to have a direct relationship with him. And Trackhouse will also help and be part of the MotoGP strategy, of Dorna, wanting to grow in the USA and hopefully we can contribute to that‘.
Brivio also highlighted the possible synergies between two different “worlds”: ‘What I also see as exciting and interesting is perhaps the possibility of mixing these two cultures. Of course, there are many good things that the team does in NASCAR, but there are also good things they are doing in MotoGP and maybe they can bring them over there. So, it’s a great opportunity for both worlds to look at each other, I believe. I see it as a special project, a project that is different in some way. Very well, it is an independent team in MotoGP like many others, but hopefully it can also be something that we can enjoy and try to do something different‘.
