This week’s tests in Losail marked Davide Brivio’s debut within Trackhouse Racing as team principal – less than two weeks after his hiring by the MotoGP’s latest team was announced. The riders will be Miguel Oliveira and Raúl Fernández, who will have Aprilia bikes.
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 the last year. I was waiting to see. I’ve been 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 chat with him. Then I was interested, «let’s see what happens». Then I got a call from Justin [Marks, owner] and he asked me if I wanted to be fully involved in the team – but in the last minute, very recently. Of course I was happy to do something’.
After the initial contacts, Brivio visited Trackhouse Racing’s headquarters in the United States of America and ended up definitively interested in joining: ‘It was very easy for Justin to convince me, because I always loved the American sport, I always wanted to understand more about the NASCAR – now I’ve no more excuses! Now seriously, Trackhouse team in US it’s a serious thing, a great organization, a successful team. That’s also what makes me very excited and interested – this established, strong team in NASCAR also wants to get into MotoGP, be successful, learn as much as possible and be here in MotoGP. Trackhouse sees MotoGP as an opportunity, it’s a company operating in motorsport – of course, business in the motorsport. And MotoGP is a great opportunity for what is the audience that follows the MotoGP, what is the success MotoGP has around the world, is a worldwide sport – so it’s also an opportunity for Trackhouse to go out of the USA’.
On the other hand, the former leader of Yamaha and Suzuki sees the human potential of Trackhouse, as well as the possible added value of the project to MotoGP itself: ‘I think we can enjoy working. I think I can enjoy working in this project, because also Justin is the owner and is directly involved in the project, he wants to learn, he wants to understand, he already knows many things about MotoGP. Of course he understands the racing being a driver – he’s still a driver in the way he wants to win. It’s interesting, it’s very nice to have a direct relationship with him. Also, I think Trackhouse is going to be helpful and to be part of the strategy that MotoGP, Dorna also wants to grow in the US and hopefully we can give our contribution to that’.
Brivio also highlighted the possible synergies between two different «worlds»: ‘What I also see as exciting and interesting is maybe the possibility to mix these two cultures. Of course there are many great things that the team does in NASCAR, but there are also good things that they’re doing in MotoGP and maybe they can take over there. So it’s a great opportunity for both worlds to look at each other, I think. I see a kind of special project, a different project somehow. Okay, it’s an independent team in MotoGP as many others, but hopefully it can be also something where we can enjoy and try to do something different’.