Alpine racing director Davide Brivio says his experience of F1 has left him feeling much more a part of the action compared to MotoGP where riders are on their own when out on the track without any radio connection with their team.
Brivio enjoyed a two-decade tenure in motorcycle racing’s top category and is best known for managing Suzuki's return to the championship in 2014 which culminated with the team's first MotoGP title in 20 years as well as the riders’ championships with Joan Mir.
As the Italian embarks on a new career challenge - guiding Alpine to the forefront of F1 - Brivio continues to settle into his new environment, noting in the process the remarkable level of inter-action and involvement by the team with its drivers compared to operations in MotoGP.
“You are in contact with the driver consistently, the race engineer is telling him ‘do this, do that, wait a little bit’, this is the biggest difference,” explained Brivio, quoted by Motorsport Week.
“And [when] I experienced the first race in Bahrain it went like this: at the beginning [of the race] I would say ‘wow one hour and 45 [minutes], whatever it is, it will be long’, but it went quickly, because you are so busy on listening, checking, analysing, and so it is very interesting.
“[In MotoGP], when the race starts, the rider is by himself, you just sit down and watch TV, that’s all you can do.
“Here, you are constantly in contact, you’re almost in the car, so you are much more a part of what is going on on the track, I think.”
While Brivio observed the many contrasts that exist between F1 and MotoGP, the former Yamaha and Suzuki boss also underscored some similarities shared by the two categories.
“I’m not an engineer but I can really appreciate the technology, and from this point of view it is interesting – this is one reason I decided to join,” he said. “It’s interesting, of course different from where I am before.
“There are similarities. Riders and drivers… they have the same ups and downs, [with] motivation, a good shape, bad shape, complaining, not happy, not feeling, whatever.
“Mechanics here and there [in F1/MotoGP] they need to keep motivated, making them wanting to improve and everything, so there are many similarities.
“The technology [in F1] is more complex – the car is bigger, many more parts, more information, more things you can measure, so as a consequence more things you need to analyse.”
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