Davide Brivio puts Ai Ogura among “best riders I’ve worked with” in MotoGP

Davide Brivio, who celebrated MotoGP titles with Valentino Rossi and Joan Mir, has described Assen winner Ai Ogura as “one of the best riders I’ve worked with”.

Mir, plus fellow race winners Maverick Vinales and Alex Rins, were among those given their MotoGP breaks by Brivio.

However, the Italian faced some criticism when he initially selected Ogura to join the Trackhouse Aprilia team as a rookie for 2025.

Ogura quickly silenced any doubters with a pair of top-five finishes as the leading Aprilia on his MotoGP debut before injuries forced several 'resets' during his rookie season.

The former Moto2 champion then began this season by matching his career-best results in Thailand, but this time carried the momentum forward and, after a technical issue at COTA, claimed his maiden podium at Le Mans.

Since solving his qualifying struggles, Ogura has finished second, second, second and finally first in Sunday's Assen Grand Prix, where he formed a dream Trackhouse one-two with team-mate and Sprint winner Raul Fernandez.

Both Brivio and Ogura will leave Trackhouse at the end of this season for different Japanese projects.

Ogura has been officially confirmed at Yamaha, where Brivio began his MotoGP career and won four titles with Rossi, while the Italian is set to take on a senior commercial role at HRC.

“Honestly speaking, Ai is one of the best riders I ever worked with,” Brivio said after Ogura's victory at Assen.

“I mean, there are a few. But he's for sure one of the riders that I will keep in my memory for a long time.

“I think all of you remember when Trackhouse decided to take Ai, it was a bit of a question mark, but for sure he has a great potential.

“Also he's Japanese, he tries to learn step by step, and in this period, he's always been very clever: Trying to understand, learn and use the experience step by step.

“I never see him going backwards. We had some injuries last year. And sometimes coming back from the injury, we had to restart a little bit.

“But it's just because his approach is not explosive, he goes step by step, using what he learned.

“For me it's fantastic. It's really very enjoyable working with him. I'm so happy that he's able to show his potential.

“I'm also so glad, because he's Japanese and we know we have so many kids in the Asia Talent Cup and from that area dreaming to be MotoGP riders.

“So I think Ai can be an inspiration for many of them. So we are so proud to be a part of that.”

Brivio also highlighted the progress made by Aprilia this season.

“Ai's using brilliantly all the potential [of the bike]. So again, thanks to Aprilia, because the technical package allows us to do this performance.

“Looking at the Sprint yesterday, Ai improved by 14 seconds [over his 2025 time].

“So we have a great technical package and Ai I think is smart, trying to use it at the maximum.

“But same as Raul. Because they were so close in performance; Raul won yesterday, Ai won today.

“So you can really say they are both at a good level with this great technical package.”

Ogura is now fourth in the world championship, 25 points behind new leader and future factory Yamaha team-mate Jorge Martin.

Fernandez, a grand prix winner at Phillip Island last year, is sixth in the standings, 55 points off the lead.