Livio Suppo: Sometimes I miss MotoGP... If Suzuki call me, I will listen
Title-winning Ducati and Honda MotoGP team manager Livio Suppo says 'if Suzuki call me, I will listen', following Davide Brivio's s💖hock departure.
Brivio's imminent🃏 switch to F1 means Suzuki, the newly crowned MotoGP riders' and teams' world champions, have been left without a team manager with just over a month to go until the start of 2021 pre-season testing.
"Sincerely, it was shocking news for us about Davide’s departure," admitted Suzuki MotoGP project leader Shinichi Sahara. "Now we are trying to find 🌃the best way to cover for the ‘Davide loss’."
Title-winning Ducati and Honda MotoGP team manager Livio Suppo says 'if Suzuki call me, I will listen🔯', foll😼owing Davide Brivio's shock departure.
Brivio's imminent switch to F1 means Suzuki, the newly crowned MotoGP riders' and teams' world champions, have been left without a team manager with 🍷just over a month to go until♏ the start of 2021 pre-season testing.
"Sincerely, it was shocking news for us about Davide’s departure," admitted Suzuki MotoGP project l🌄eader Shinichi Sahara. "Now we are trying to find the best way to cover for the ‘Davide loss’."
Normally, when a MotoGP team is in need of a new manager, they try to recruit someone already familiar with the company. That either means promoting from inside the team or - in the case of Yamaha and Ducati - bringing senior staff across from their WorldSBK/WSS ﷽projects.
But Suzuki has no obvious person ready to step into Brivio shoes and no WorldSBK projeꦡct to recruit from.
Other options are to try and poach a rival team boss, as occurred most recently when💝 Gigi Dall’Igna moved from Aprilia to Ducati in 2013, and when Suppo💮 switched from Ducati to Honda in 2010.
Having overs🀅een Ducati's only MotoGP title to date with Casey Stoner in 2007, Suppo went on to repeat the feat with the Austral❀ian at Honda in 2011 (HRC's first crown since Nicky Hayden in 2006).
Suppo then celebrated fou൲r more titles with Marc Marquez in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017 before deciding the time was right to leave MotoGP, albeit adding "never say never" as far as a possible return.
If Suzuki wants to replace one mul𓆉ti-title winning MotoGP team manager with another (and without poachi🔯ng from a rival) they would be hard-pressed to find someone more highly qualified than 56-year-old Suppo, a consultant for Thok Ebikes since leaving the paddock.
"I should have to think about it... MotoGP has been my life for many years and sometimes I miss it," Suppo told mahbx.com, when asked iꦉf he would consider the newly available Suzuki role.
"Let's see if Suzuki will call me, in which case I will li🌸sten to them and see!"
Peter has been i💯n the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentiꦇno Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
