Davide Brivio lays out Trackhouse plan to make “life difficult” for Ducati

New Trackhouse team principal Davide Brivio has sent his first warning to Ducati ahead of the 2024 MotoGP season.

Brivio steered Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) and Joan Mir (Suzuki) to MotoGP championships in the past.

He has now returned from a stint in F1 to take charge of MotoGP’s newest team, at Aprilia’s satellite project.

“Ducati has confirmed the great competitiveness that it has achieved and the work that Aprilia must do is to try to get closer and counteract this dominance,” he was quoted by GPone.

“I see a very active Aprilia especially from an aerodynamic point of view.

“They have a completely new bike which might bring some problems at the beginning but it seems to have great potential.

“The challenge is to get in among the Ducatis and try to make their life difficult.

“This is what Aprilia and KTM will try to do while the Japanese [manufacturers] will try to grow.

“They will all be on the attack on Ducati, even if it won’t be easy.”

Trackhouse took over from RNF and will run Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez as their 2024 rider duo.

Oliveira will profit from the use of a ‘24 spec factory bike.

“There will be a great collaboration with Aprilia and we will work together with Massimo Rivola,” Brivio said.

“But he is the one who manages Aprilia and brought it to where it is, so we will try to be useful and to create a strong team.

“I believe our two riders, Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez, are very talented and we will try to fully exploit their potential, given that last year they were unable to take advantage of everything that they could give.”

Trackhouse’s background in NASCAR and their American background make them a fascinating addition to MotoGP.

Brivio said: “For me it will be the first time in an independent team. But this one is different to others.

“Not only because they are Americans, but because they have a lot of enthusiasm and the desire to be innovative.

“I have been to their headquarters and it is a fantastic reality.

“The American world has always fascinated me and it will be nice to see what we can bring from their sport to the European one and if there will be something from NASCAR that we can draw inspiration from for MotoGP and vice versa.

“It could be two worlds that meet and intersect and I think that’s a positive for everyone.”

After seeing Mir win the 2020 championship as Suzuki boss, Brivio left MotoGP for F1.

But his stint at the Alpine Formula 1 team didn’t go to plan, and he is now back in the paddock which he has already conquered.

“F1 was a great experience for me from a professional point of view,” he said.

“Honestly, it didn’t go as well as I would have liked.

“But I had the chance to see how such a large organisation works.

“I learned a few things and we will see if there is something useful for me in this new experience in MotoGP.”