MotoGP | Why Trackhouse deserves trust for betting on Ogura

On the eve of the last Austrian Grand Prix, it was confirmed that Ai Ogura will debut in MotoGP next year thanks to the bet made by Trackhouse, in particular by Davide Brivio. With the hiring of the Japanese, the team manager of the American team remains faithful to the philosophy that makes him a practically unique case among the managers of the different teams in the championship. When he was leading the Suzuki project in MotoGP, he had decided to focus on a pair of two young riders, Alex Rins and Joan Mir, considering them a safer investment than looking for more experienced riders.

The easiest and most expensive path does not always give the desired results and the gamble paid off, as the Hamamatsu manufacturer won the title with the Majorcan in 2020, the best date imaginable: Suzuki was celebrating 60 years of racing history and exactly 20 years had passed since the last title obtained by Kenny Roberts Jr in 2000. Previously, during his journey in Yamaha, Davide Brivio’s instincts had been key to hiring Jorge Lorenzo, even before the rider from Palma de Mallorca, who at the time raced in the then 250cc with the number 48, won his first world championship in the intermediate class (in 2006).

Everything that happened before represents an archive rich enough to make one think that any decision taken by the former Alpine manager is the consequence of an exhaustive analysis, always made through his particular views. If this logic still hasn’t convinced anyone, Brivio himself takes it upon himself to argue the choice of the young rider from the MT Helmets team compared to others who could have seemed perfect to ride the satellite Aprilia, for example Joe Roberts.

“With Ai we decided to go in a different direction. We did our studies based on the performance that we think the different alternatives we evaluated can offer us,” explained Brivio a few days ago, immediately after announcing the Tokyo rider’s engagement for 2025 and 2026. “We appreciate what he is doing in Moto2, his resilience. He never gives up. We are confident and we think it is a good choice,” he added.

He is then asked directly about Roberts and the reasons that prevented the only American structure of the championship from having a star from its own country for the promotion. The answer is very clear and elegant: “It would be nice to have an American driver in an American team. Joe was on our list, but we made our evaluations more from the point of view of performance and we came to the conclusion that the path we have chosen is the most appropriate. We will know if we were right or not in a couple of years “.

With this maneuver, Brivio highlights several elements that should not go unnoticed. First, he was able to convince Justin Marks, owner of Trakhouse, not to rush into hiring a rider. Second, and no less relevant, the former Suzuki team manager remained firm in front of the authorities, who seem more interested in Roberts’ debut in the premier class than in Marks himself, for a purely commercial reason. And Brivio did all this with diplomacy and without raising his voice.

Davide Brivio, Massimo Rivola, Aprilia Racing CEO

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“We know that Dorna would have been happy if we had chosen Joe. But it was our decision. However, I think that Dorna has reasons to be happy with the hiring of Ogura, because then we would have the first representative of the Asia Talent Cup to come to MotoGP,” said Brivio, who turned 60 last month and signed a long-term contract as Trackhouse’s anchorman, with the full agreement of Aprilia.

With the arrival of Ogura, the North Carolina team has made a statement of intent: a decision diametrically opposed to the one that Pramac is about to make, which in the next few days should announce Miguel Oliveira and Jack Miller as riders in the adventure that will begin with Yamaha. In reality, the Australian (the only representative of his country in MotoGP) was not on the list of candidates to ride one of the four M1s that will take to the track in 2025. However, neither Pramac nor Yamaha seem to have considered it appropriate to leave the #43 without a place on the grid.

Fabio Quartararo, the spearhead of the Iwata manufacturer, has always expressed his preference for a young rider, whether Sergio Garcia or Tony Arbolino, for the place in Paolo Campinoti’s team. Aware of where things were going, El Diablo seems to have resigned himself to the choices made. “We don’t have time, we have to improve as soon as possible, so experience will always be welcome,” the Frenchman recently commented in a statement that revealed more of a resigned tone than full of expectations.