DAVIDE BRIVIO AND HIS HABIT OF RUNNING MOTOGP CIRCUITS
In MotoGP, everything is measured. Lap times, strategy, performance, the pressure that comes with every race weekend.
14th September
Laet for Davide Brivio, one of the most successful team managers in MotoGP history with multiple world championship titles to his name,
there has long been another way to experience that world: by running.
Today, as Team Principal of TrackHouse Racing MotoGP Team, Brivio's connection to running takes on an additional meaning through the team's partnership with KARHU, whose footwear accompanies TrackHouse throughout the season, reinforcing the natural link between performance, travel and movement.
Whenever he arrives at a circuit, before the paddock fills with noise and tension, he laces up his running shoes and heads out onto the track.
Over the years, this personal ritual has become an integral part of the journey itself.
Listening to him describe the habit, it's hard not to think of Haruki Murakami's memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, the idea that running is not only a way to train the body, but also a way to better observe places, experiences and one's own thoughts.
For Brivio, a circuit changes completely when experienced on foot.
Without the motorcycles and without the speed, different details emerge. Elevation changes are felt through the legs. Corners lose their technical dimension and become something almost physical. The track stops being just aworkplace.
"Running is also a way of getting to know a place", he says.
While running, he listens to podcasts. Conversations, stories and voices that feel far removed from the constant noise of the paddock. It is his way of mentally disconnecting from an environment that operates under relentless pressure.
And perhaps that is the most interesting aspect of his relationship with running: Brivio is not looking for competition.
Despite spending his life in one of the most competitiveenvironments in professional sport, he has taken part in only one running race, a 10K in Dubai, where he now lives. The experience was enough to make him realize that he didn't want running to become another pursuit driven by results.
"I don't want to ruin the pleasure of running. Before that 10K in Dubai, I studied the course, checked the results from previous editions and positioned myself as close to the front as possible so I wouldn't lose time at the start. I brought my MotoGP competitive mindset into running, and as soon as I crossed the finish line, I realized I wanted something different."
At a time when running is increasingly tied to numbers, pace, performance, rankings and social sharing, his perspective feels almost countercultural. For him, running remains a personal space. A moment free from the competitive and performance driven mindset that defines every race weekend. Just the rhythm of his footsteps.
Perhaps that is why he continues to run wherever MotoGP takes him.
Before the helmets.
Before the engines.
Before the race weekend begins.
For a few kilometres, the circuit belongs only to him.