Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo: Davide Brivio Reveals the Backstory Behind the Clash
Former Yamaha team manager Davide Brivio, in an interview with moto.it, looked back on the years of complicated coexistence in the pits between Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. “We signed Lorenzo because we knew Valentino might go to Formula 1 in 2007, and we were very concerned. We had gotten used to winning—2004, 2005—and Yamaha, a manufacturer that hadn’t won in many years, had developed a taste for victory. But if Valentino had left, what would we have done? We needed to find a young rider who could try to become a top rider like him. That’s where the idea of Jorge Lorenzo came from.”
The first problem was with the tires: Rossi asked to switch to Bridgestone, while Lorenzo stayed with Yamaha. “Bridgestone no longer had the capacity to supply other teams: after lengthy negotiations, we managed to secure the tires, but only for one rider. So Valentino was on Bridgestones, Lorenzo on Michelins, all on the same team. It was quite a mess to manage. The team was actually split in two, somewhat divided internally partly because of this: we couldn’t share data; we had to be careful. Imagine the back of the garage: Valentino’s tire change crew with Bridgestone and Lorenzo’s with Michelin—they had to stay separate because neither Michelin nor Bridgestone wanted any exchange of information. Organizationally, it was a bit complicated.”
That’s when the “wall” in the pit was built: “It came about partly because of the different tires that year, 2008. It was also built to prevent us from exchanging data, to keep things confidential. It wasn’t Valentino’s decision—perhaps at the time he didn’t mind, so to speak—but it came about because of that issue. Back then, it wasn’t just the wall in the middle; the team was actually split apart. I took a step back, out of love for Valentino, because I wanted to stay connected to him: I was the team director, and I became team manager solely for Valentino’s team, while Yamaha appointed Daniele Romagnoli—Martin’s current chief engineer—as team manager for Lorenzo’s team. What happened in 2009 was a wonderful professional experience for me, because Valentino and Lorenzo were both fighting for the world championship on the same team.”
“When two teammates fight for the title, it almost becomes a different sport. If you’re competing against a rider from another manufacturer, you try to find some advantage, an idea, a new part. There, however, everything was available to both of them: if a chassis arrived and Valentino said it worked well, it was also available to Lorenzo. Whatever one of us tested, if it worked well, it was available to the other. You couldn’t gain any technical advantages. When you’re teammates, it’s even more stressful, because racing against another team is like one army against another. Not here—you were on the same team, at the same manufacturer; you had to share everything. It was an interesting experience.”
Barcelona 2009 created internal rifts within the team: “It was turned into the climax of the rivalry, but there was also a major misunderstanding, a miscommunication. What happened was that Valentino overtook Lorenzo at the last corner, and Valentino’s pit crew cheered. Lorenzo’s pit crew took that celebration as directed against them. In reality, it was a celebration of winning the race with an overtake in the final corner—it could have been anyone there, Pedrosa, Stoner; the celebration would have been the same. Lorenzo, however, interpreted it as a celebration directed against them. During the week, we held team meetings to clarify this, to explain that it was a celebration of a spectacular and unique victory. Besides, the rivalry was perhaps much greater among the riders than within the team: there has always been an excellent relationship among the mechanics; obviously, with a world championship on the line, there was some minor tension, but it was a great season.”
