Italian motorsport official and the current sports director for Aprilia in MotoGP Massimo Rivola arrived in 2009 at Scuderia Ferrari where he went to occupy the position of sporting director, working among others with drivers such as Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel; again in the Maranello outfit, in 2016 he became director of the Ferrari Driver Academy, contributing to launch the promising Charles Leclerc in the top racing series.
Massimo Rivola was recently interviewed by Italian centrist daily newspaper Il Foglio and talked about Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso.
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Rivola followed the Monegasque very closely for three seasons, assisting him in his progress and in his rise as a main driver for the Maranello team. Below is an extract of his comments:
“It was a lot of fun to work with him. It was immediately clear that he would become a champion, he reminded me of Fernando Alonso in some aspects: he wanted to win any challenge and did not accept defeat, which he took really badly. The character? We worked a lot on that, on the management of anxiety, anger, on coping and learning from errors. It happens on average that out of 15 corners you can make a mistake and it is not that you can think of the mistake for the next 14 … He did a great job and has improved A lot. And then I think that the life tragedies he suffered, from Jules Bianchi to his father, have made him even stronger. He still has a lot of potential for growth. I told him what he is missing, he needs to improve the way in which he interprets key moments of the race. Fernando Alonso? Nobody had a better race management than him. Many times he made us feel like idiots in the pit wall because he could see beyond what we could. He understood things before others, there are drivers who teach you a lot.” – Massimo Rivola concluded.
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