Brivio explains why he swapped MotoGP for “dream” F1 chance

Davide Brivio admits it was “not easy” to leave Suzuki’s MotoGP team to become Alpine’s new racing director, but says he would have regretted passing up the “dream” opportunity to work in Formula 1.

After leading Suzuki to its first MotoGP title since 2000 last year as Joan Mir clinched the riders’ crown, Brivio has traded two wheels for four by joining the rebranded Alpine squad as its new racing director amid an organisational restructuring within the team ahead of the upcoming 2021 F1 season.

Speaking at Alpine’s launch of its new A521 car, the Italian explained the thinking behind his decision to quit MotoGP for F1, saying he did not feel it was an opportunity he could pass up.

“Of course it was not easy to leave my old team, an environment that I knew very well,” Brivio said.

“Formula 1 has been for me a dream for a long time and it’s very exciting for me to start something completely new, to get into a new environment.

“Of course I have a lot to learn, a lot to understand but it’s adrenaline for me, it’s oxygen to get to work and to learn a lot of things. It was an opportunity which I felt I had to take, probably I would have regretted if I didn’t take.

"So now here I am and I will try to do my best. I hope I can contribute to the Alpine F1 Team with my experience. It won’t be easy and I need some time, but I am fully committed to get involved as best as I can as soon as possible.” 

Brivio will effectively split the traditional F1 team principal role with executive director Marcin Budkowski following the departure of former Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul.

“I will be in charge of the track operations, track activity so everything that happens on the circuit,” he explained. “Basically our job as a race team is to exploit the full potential of the car.

“It’s a big pressure and a big responsibility because we have over 1000 people between Enstone and Viry, preparing the chassis, the car and the power unit, and our job - we will be a much limited number of people at the race track - but there is where we have to extract the full potential of the car. So I will be in charge of that.

“Of course I’m not an engineer but I have to make sure that the engineers, the drivers, all the people involved, they have all they need to perform at the very best. In this way, if we are able to have a strong team - which is already in place - we will be able to extract the full potential of the car.

“So that is the job, to go to the circuit, to go around the world, and try to get out the best of what the guys have prepared at home. So we have big responsibility and big pressure because we have to give a value to their job.”

Asked whether he feels it is harder transitioning from MotoGP to F1 or vice-versa, Brivio replied: “I don’t know, I will tell you in maybe one years time!

“In this moment I think it’s probably harder for MotoGP to go to Formula 1. Because F1 is a bigger organisation, it’s more complex, and many more people.

"I think it’s a little more complex, so that is good news for me (laughs). But let’s see. I feel a lot of similarities with teamwork, drivers that are similar in attitude and willing as the riders. It’s much more complex in terms of technicality so many more parameters and more problems, aerodynamics.

“This is a more technical job. In terms of putting the team together, trying to strengthen the group I think there are similarities. There is no doubt that Formula 1 is more complex than MotoGP, but they both have similarities I think.”