Alpine's Brivio return to MotoGP ruled out

Alpine racing director Davide Brivio's rumoured MotoGP return to Suzuki has been ruled out by the Japanese manufacturer.

Brivio helped to mastermind Team Suzuki's stunning double championship triumph in 2020, with Joan Mir winning the riders' championship adding to the team's title.

The Italian left the outfit at the end of the season to join a three-headed leadership team at Alpine alongside executive director Marcin Budkowski and CEO Laurent Rossi.

Rumours of a desire to return began circulating in recent weeks, with fuel added to these reports when Rossi was reported as saying the team would look to reshuffle the management structure.

Ahead of the São Paulo Grand Prix, Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer was forced to strongly deny rumours linking him to the French team as a "spiral of misinformation".

It had been suggested Szafnauer had agreed to a deal in principle with Alpine, further pushing the Brivio-to-Suzuki agenda.

Speaking at MotoGP's season finale in Valencia, however, Suzuki project leader Shinichi Sahara ruled out a return to the team for Brivio, at least for next year.

"I'm trying to make a new structure for next year, to invite a new team manager from outside," said Sahara.

"At the moment we are in the final stages to fix this, but I can't say anything about this.

"Davide is still my good friend. I sometimes speak with him on the phone, even during a race weekend.

"I really want him to have successful years in Formula 1, and in the future, I hope we work again with Davide in the same team. But next year, this is not the way for us."

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