A new crew chief for Axel Bassani at the Bimota WorldSBK team in 2026 means a change of roles for Kawasaki stalwart Marcel Duinker.<\/p>\n
For Duinker, the personnel shuffle within Bimota leads to a change of roles after over a decade working as a crew chief at the Provec team that runs the Bimota factory World Superbike<\/a> effort \u2013 and the factory Kawasaki effort before that \u2013 a role in which he won the world title in 2013 with Tom Sykes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team manager Guim Roda explained that Duinker \u2013 who has been with Kawasaki since it was in MotoGP<\/a> in the 2000s \u2013 will remain within the Kawasaki and Bimota projects, but will take on a role that combines development with the support of teams running the KB998 in national championships, such as the FS-3 team in BSB<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cUri [Oriol] Pallares will be Axel\u2019s [Bassani] new crew chief, and Marcel Duinker will move to more of an engineering role to support development and work with Kawasaki,\u201d said Roda, speaking to WorldSBK.com.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019ll also be helping out teams riding on Bimota bikes in the national championships.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201cMarcel has experience with the technical side, especially with suspension, as well as a crew chief with engineering skills; he\u2019s a great asset to have.\u201d<\/p>\n On the other hand, the choice of Pallares as Bassani<\/a>\u2019s new crew chief was one that made sense given his experience with the Provec team, where he was chief mechanic under Pere Riba during Jonathan Rea<\/a>\u2019s title years, and his experience in 2025 as Rea\u2019s crew chief at Yamaha.<\/p>\n \u201cUri, on his side, has been the chief mechanic for many years,\u201d said Roda.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was working very closely with Pere Riba, and he has more experience than people think with organising a team for a race or a test at a high level.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think he\u2019s ready to work with Axel.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n