        In 2006, a season in which Valentino Rossi saw Nicky Hayden snatch the world title, the Italian had a real chance of moving to Formula 1. A &lsquo;sliding doors&rsquo; that has been much discussed over the years, and one that Davide Brivio still recalls now, Brivio having been the factory Yamaha team manager at that time. The Yamaha counter-move  The Italian manager, who now wears Alpine colours in the F1 paddock, recalls those moments as Rossi takes part in his final MotoGP race. &ldquo;In 2006, he completed some tests with Ferrari at Valencia, there was a serious and real chance he&rsquo;d move to Formula 1&rdquo;, the Italian tells Sky Sport. The Italian&rsquo;s departure would have left a space in the Iwata manufacturer&rsquo;s garage, and so they decided to guard against that. &ldquo;We were in difficulty in Yamaha, we asked ourselves what we would do if Vale were to leave&rdquo;. And so to the hiring of Jorge Lorenzo: &ldquo;The arrival of Jorge was the result, as we prepared for a future without Valentino&rdquo;. In the end, Rossi decided to continue in MotoGP, flanking the Majorcan in 2008-2010 and 2013-2016. &ldquo;In actual fact, Lorenzo retired before Valentino&rdquo;, smiles Brivio in conclusion. Translated by Heather Watson GP Valencia, Rossi: &ldquo;I'm pleased to have developed MotoGP&rdquo;       

The former Suzuki team manager thinks back to when they hired Jorge Lorenzo at Yamaha, at a time when Valentino Rossi was very close to moving from two to four wheels

MotoGP, Davide Brivio reveals: “Rossi was close to F1, so we hired Lorenzo”

Davide Brivio&rsquo;s Suzuki adventure has come to an end and the Italian team manager has decided to move into the four-wheel world, as Racing Director for the F1 Alpine team.  And so we take a look back at his time in Suzuki, Brivio himself providing the MotoGP website with some interesting insight, including details of how he first came into contact with the Hamamatsu manufacturer.  &quot;At the time, I&rsquo;d left Yamaha and was working directly for Valentino Rossi. Sahara, Suzuki project manager, contacted me via Facebook: it was very strange because I didn&rsquo;t really use Facebook&quot;, reveals Brivio. &quot;He asked me about Rossi, what he was doing and what his plans for the future were. Suzuki wanted to return to MotoGP in 2014 and they asked me whether Valentino would be available to race for them&rdquo;.  Valentino&rsquo;s refusal   &ldquo;I immediately spoke with Vale, but he told me he wasn&rsquo;t very excited about the idea of Suzuki. He wanted to return to Yamaha. So I politely told Sahara that Rossi wasn&rsquo;t interested. We carried on talking and he said: &ldquo;If we were to form a team in Italy, would you be interested?&rdquo; I said yes and my work officially began on 1 April 2013. The idea was to have a test period of a few months and then begin in 2014, but they told us it had all been put back by a year and that we&rsquo;d start in 2015&Prime;, explains the Italian manager.  Mir&rsquo;s arrival   Another key moment in Suzuki history came with the decision to hire Joan Mir. &quot;In 2018 we had to decide on our 2019 line-up. The Rins project was working and so we had the idea to repeat the Rins experience with another young rider. I started to consider Joan Mir because I was struck by the fact he&rsquo;d won the Moto3 championship by winning ten races.  &quot;Joan had an option to go to Honda, but one chat was enough to convince him. I told him: &lsquo;Forget the option for a minute, if you could choose between Honda and Suzuki what would you do?&rsquo; And he said &lsquo;I would want to go to Suzuki&#39;. He told me the bike better suited his style, physique and height. My eyes lit up and I said &lsquo;He&rsquo;s the man for us&rsquo;.  Considering the results achieved in 2020, hiring Mir was clearly the right choice.  Translated by Heather Watson  MotoGP, Schwantz: &ldquo;Brivio&#39;s position is not an easy one to inherit&rdquo; 

The former Suzuki team manager looks back at how he came to work with the Japanese manufacturer and his initial contact with Sahara via Facebook

MotoGP, Brivio reveals: &ldquo;Suzuki wanted Valentino Rossi&rdquo;

        A few days after the news broke re Davide Brivio&rsquo;s departure from the Suzuki team, MotoGP Project Leader Shinichi Sahara is interviewed by the Suzuki website and talks about the team&rsquo;s plans for 2021 and a possible satellite team for 2022. &ldquo;News of Davide&rsquo;s departure shocked us&rdquo;  Sahara starts the interview by talking about Brivio&rsquo;s decision, how it was taken by the team, and how the plans for 2021 will now change with a title to defend. &ldquo;It came as shocking news - begins the MotoGP Project Leader - I very much appreciate what Davide&rsquo;s done since coming to Suzuki. He arrived early on, soon after the project was born, and he was able to develop this and build a top team. We are affected of course, but I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;ll lose the way without him, because we&rsquo;ve always viewed things in the same way and agreed on the direction to take. We also have expert staff to help us manage everything. I fully trust in the team structure that we have and everyone else who has contributed to building this&rdquo;. He then adds: &ldquo;When Davide told the team, we were all shocked of course. But we soon focused on the next steps we need to take together. We&rsquo;ll be more united than ever because we all love this brand and we&rsquo;ll give 150% to tackle the new challenges in the best way.&rdquo; What impact will this situation have on the team? &ldquo;In my opinion, it shouldn&rsquo;t impact on anything moving forward - explains Sahara - We will work as we know how, and even harder than we did before winning the championship. Our attitude hasn&rsquo;t changed and we&rsquo;ll fight for the title once more with our strong riders, Mir and Rins&rdquo;. As for the riders, the Japanese comments: &ldquo;This won&rsquo;t affect our riders&rsquo; ability to fight for the title. We are already champions and have two young and talented riders. They know how to tackle problems or tough situations and manage the pressure. I&rsquo;m not at all worried in this regard. They are both real professionals and ready for the 2021 championship&rdquo;. MotoGP, Schwantz: &ldquo;Brivio's position is not an easy one to inherit&rdquo; &ldquo;We will find a solution internally&rdquo;  The MotoGP Project Leader then outlines plans for the team, starting with who will replace Davide Brivio as team manager. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s always important to optimise the team structure in order to obtain the best possible performance from each team member, and this is always true, even without Davide&rsquo;s departure. But I think everyone&rsquo;s quite professional and we have the know-how to move forward in the best possible way&rdquo;. &ldquo;I think we can manage the situation with the people inside Suzuki, and that&rsquo;s the best way for us - adds Sahara, providing a clue as to the next team manager &ndash; We know who we are, how we work, how we interact and what we need. We&rsquo;re not looking externally right now, we&rsquo;ll try to manage it by ourselves&rdquo;. Chicho Lorenzo: &ldquo;Brivio will be successful in Formula 1 too&rdquo; Riders and development  As for the 2021 season, the Project Leader explains the focus of GSX-RR development. &ldquo;As we&rsquo;ve done in the past, we&rsquo;re looking to improve all the performance areas of our bike without losing the good balance. We&rsquo;ll probably need to aim for better grid positions without losing any performance over race distance&rdquo;. It will also be important to manage the internal rivalry between Mir and Rins, but Sahara doesn&rsquo;t seem too worried. &ldquo;We need to avoid any serious mistakes in terms of development direction with the various data collected from our riders with their different high-level riding styles &ndash; he explains &ndash; They know the advantages of sharing data as it helps make the bike more competitive for them both&rdquo;. Will we see a new and improved Joan in 2021? &ldquo;He&rsquo;s still young and is about to begin only his third season with us, so there&rsquo;s still room to understand the bike and the team and improve. I imagine that, having won the championship, he&rsquo;s already gained in maturity and knows how to deal with pressure&rdquo;, comments the Suzuki Project Leader, keen to see how the world champion will be motivated by his team-mate. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll see if Rins becomes stronger too, battling with his team-mate. Last year he was in great shape but then he unfortunately got hurt, so this really conditioned his performance&rdquo;, adds Sahara in reference to number 42. MotoGP, is Rins the main 2021 title contender? &ldquo;We&rsquo;re considering various options for the satellite team&rdquo;  In light of last year&rsquo;s results, the Hamamatsu manufacturer looks to the future with confidence, despite a freezing of development for 2021. &ldquo;From an engineering standpoint, we always have new ideas with which to improve the bike. Fortunately our package wasn&rsquo;t bad in 2020, so we&rsquo;ll carefully develop the areas in which we&rsquo;re allowed to work. In any case, you never know how the new rules will affect things, but I think it&rsquo;s the same for all the manufacturers. The rules are the same for everyone, so we all have to ensure fair play&rdquo;, adds Sahara, who closes by touching on the possibility of a satellite team: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re still considering what might be the best solution. We might have more information during the season&rdquo;. Translated by Heather Watson Cagiva, Kocinski&rsquo;s winning C593 up for auction       

Suzuki&rsquo;s Project Leader speaks for the first time following the news of Davide Brivio&rsquo;s move to F1: &ldquo;It shocked us, I appreciate what Davide&rsquo;s done since coming to Suzuki&rdquo;

MotoGP, Sahara and Brivio’s departure: “We can manage the situation”

        Kevin Schwantz, former Suzuki rider and 1993 world champion with the same manufacturer, comments on Davide Brivio&rsquo;s departure. The American considers the situation in which Suzuki now finds itself in the run-up to the 2021 championship, forced to find a replacement for the Italian manager who's been able to take the Japanese manufacturer all the way to the top. An understandable decision  &ldquo;I understand Davide&rsquo;s decision, it&rsquo;s a great opportunity&rdquo;admits Schwantz. "He and his brother Roberto have done an excellent job, putting Suzuki to the front in MotoGP. It will be difficult to find a replacement as they&rsquo;ve worked really, really well&rdquo;. For now, the only two names that have been mentioned with any conviction are those of Livio Suppo, considering his significant experience with Ducati and Honda, and Pablo Nieto, who heads up the Sky Racing Team VR46.&nbsp; The position is highly sought after  A move to the championship winning team, with two talents like Joan Mir and Alex Rins, could be a very attractive proposal for many: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not an easy position to inherit. I&rsquo;m sure there&rsquo;s plenty of people who&rsquo;d like that role this season. Suzuki, for its part, will have a lot of people who helped bring the team to its current level&rdquo;. In addition, development hasn&rsquo;t stopped over the winter; after all, the team that will set out to defend its title can&rsquo;t exactly rest on its laurels: &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve prepared a lot of new things in order to improve further. I don&rsquo;t know who will be selected to take Brivio&rsquo;s place, but they&rsquo;ll have their work cut out. I can only wish the new arrival good luck, and I hope Suzuki will soon reveal who&rsquo;ll be heading up the team&rdquo;. Translated by Heather Watson MotoGP, the future of Suzuki: Pablo Nieto a possible replacement for Brivio       

The former Suzuki world champion comments on the news of Brivio&rsquo;s departure and talks about the future that awaits the Hamamatsu manufacturer

MotoGP, Schwantz: “Brivio’s position is not an easy one to inherit”

Suzuki has enjoyed an unforgettable season in MotoGP, winning the title with Joan Mir and securing third place in the championship with second rider Alex Rins. And they only just missed out on the constructors&rsquo; title. All in all, Davide Brivio can be very pleased with his work, also considering the available budget (apparently the fifth in order of size among the six manufacturers on the grid).  But, like any perfectionist, Brivio thinks there is always room for improvement. Particularly with the help of a satellite team. An option that has long been discussed in Suzuki.  Brivio: &quot;We need more information on track&quot;   &quot;On the one side, it might look as if we don&rsquo;t need it because we&rsquo;ve won the title, but our engineers don&rsquo;t agree&rdquo;, states Davide Brivio in reference to a possible satellite team.  &quot;On track, we feel the need for more information. In certain situations, two riders are not enough&hellip; As a factory team, we&rsquo;d like to have a satellite team with which to obtain and share more information, but this project requires the approval of top management &quot;, explains Brivio.  If taken, a decision would need to come early on in 2021. This, so that the project could come to fruition in 2022.  &ldquo;If the aim is to do it in 2022, we&rsquo;d need to decide at the start of 2021, so March or April at the latest&rdquo;, comments Brivio.  The &quot;suspect&rdquo; arrival of Monster   In the meantime, it&rsquo;s impossible not to hypothesise with regard to the arrival of new title sponsor Monster, which moves from Yamaha to Suzuki following Valentino Rossi&rsquo;s departure from the factory team.  And if Monster is closely tied to Valentino Rossi &ndash; it came to Yamaha when Rossi returned following his brief stint with Ducati &ndash; there&rsquo;s also a link with Davide Brivio, who is a close friend of the rider.  How will this partnership develop? Will we see Valentino Rossi in Suzuki? Or will the team that Valentino plans to create be wearing Suzuki blue? Might this be the satellite team to which Davide Brivio refers? We can only await further clues&hellip;  Translated by Heather Watson  MotoGP, Rossi-Petronas: the final chapter in a long film 

&ldquo;As a factory team, we&rsquo;d like a satellite team with which to obtain and share more information, but this project requires the approval of top management&rdquo;, states the Suzuki team manager

5 risultati per 'EN davide brivio'

MotoGP, Davide Brivio reveals: “Rossi was close to F1, so we hired Lorenzo”

MotoGP, Brivio reveals: “Suzuki wanted Valentino Rossi”

MotoGP, Sahara and Brivio’s departure: “We can manage the situation”

MotoGP, Schwantz: “Brivio’s position is not an easy one to inherit”

MotoGP, Davide Brivio: “Sometimes two riders are not enough”