Just when I was going to write a post of F1 team valuations, one team makes a change at the top. After just three seasons with Alpine, Davide Brivio is leaving them at the end of the year. He was supposed to remain through 2024 but both parties decided to end the agreement a year early by mutual consent.
This is a big deal, I’ll explain why.
You see, not only am I an F1 fan; I’m crazy about MotoGP as well! Back when it was first announced that Brivio was joining Alpine I was like “Wait a second, he’s that guy from Yamaha and Suzuki. Brivio is coming to F1, that’s a big one!” It was a significant move for sure because he had amazing success in MotoGP. After all, he was one of the reasons why Valentino Rossi left Honda to join Yamaha. Then when Rossi was struggling with Ducati, Brivio worked with him to set-up the VR46 Academy for young (mostly Italian) motorcycle riders. If that wasn’t enough, he moved over to Suzuki when they rejoined MotoGP and made them into a title-winning team. They guy has a demonstrable record of success managing two-wheeled teams, no doubt about it.
The Renault Group (Alpine’s owner) reckoned that Brivio would be an upgrade from Cyril Abiteboul as they sought to joint the sharp-end of the grid. They had some good drivers, a heritage of winning, and great people back at the factory. Surely with Renault’s backing and a championship-winning manager they would move up…right?
As the last few years have demonstrated though, this didn’t happen.
In fact, 2023 has been a year full of drama and upheaval across the board. I suspect that in a few years, there will be multiple books written about the situation at Alpine F1 and how it went from promise to a bit of a mess. With all of this happening, I suspect that Brivio and the Renault Group decided to part ways and move on. In my opinion, this is a big loss for Alpine at least in the short-term. More on that later…
For now, where does Davide Brivio go next? Sure, Alpine didn’t work out but that may have been an impossible situation from the get-go given all that’s happened. He’s well-regarded in MotoGP and World Superbike circles so maybe he will go back there. MotoGP in particular knows what he can do when given the tools and backing.
So I think Mr. Brivio will be back in MotoGP fairly soon, but where? It would make a lot of sense for him to go back to Yamaha. They have gone from having the most ride-able bike in MotoGP a few years ago to struggling to get podiums. Former Champion Fabio Quartararo didn’t even win a race last season and is understandably concerned about the competitiveness of the Yamaha YZR-M1. Plus, Yamaha no longer have any satellite teams using their bikes and providing data to the factory engineers. It’s a massive fall from where they were just recently.
There is another possibility thought that bears consideration; the other remaining Japanese manufacturer in MotoGP, Honda. Like Yamaha they are facing a fall from competitiveness that has been even more dramatic. Plus, their best rider and multiple World Champion Marc Márquez has left for Ducati on a satellite bike! While Honda has both a factory and a satellite team, they are nowhere as competitive as they were when they had one of the most powerful bikes on the grid. Evidently there are also stories that Repsol Honda Team Manager Alberto Puig may be leaving. Honda needs help too because they are struggling.
My thought right now is that Davide Brivio will be back in MotoGP fairly soon, maybe even before the season begins. Wherever he lands, he will have a multi-year project on his hands to rebuild a former winning team. Given the success that Ducati has had recently, that will be a big task but also shows that a team can be turned around. Think about it, only Casey Stoner could win on the Ducati in the dry and when they lost him…they were lost. It took years and a competent manager (Gigi Dall’Igna) to turn Ducati into a winning package. So it can be done, will Brivio be the one to do it one more time?
I suspect we will know fairly soon. After all, championship motorsports managers are a rare find in any era. Given the competitiveness of MotoGP and his record of success in that series, I would be a surprise if he was not picked-up by one of the teams. Regardless, this is a big loss for Alpine in a year of chaos. That merits additional discussion but for now we’ll leave it at that.
