The fact that MotoGP riders were, or had to be, signed as a pair \u2013 that is, together with their crew chiefs \u2013 is anything but standard practice in view of the reorganisation for the 2027 season. Whilst the close relationship between the rider and the chief engineer \u2013 who acts as a technical liaison alongside the rider \u2013 continues to be of great importance, the MotoGP manufacturers have long since recognised the value of this connection.<\/p>\n
A crew chief who was negotiated as a mandatory part of a rider\u2019s contract is now the exception rather than the rule in today\u2019s MotoGP competition. A prominent example is the duo of Jorge Martin and Daniele Romagnoli. The Spaniard and the Italian got to know each other at Pramac-Ducati \u2013 Romagnoli was on Ducati Corse\u2019s payroll to support Martin in his title chase using factory machinery. As is well known, this proved successful. In 2024, they secured the World Championship title together.<\/p>\n
Not to be forgotten: the Sterlacchini factor at Aprilia<\/p>\n
Jorge Martin continued to rely on Romagnoli. Martin managed to bring the Italian \u2013 who had previously worked with Jorge Lorenzo at Yamaha \u2013 on board for the move to Aprilia at the end of 2024. Despite the disastrous 2025 season \u2013 due to Martin\u2019s long-term injury, Romagnoli spent most of his time working with stand-in and test rider Lorenzo Savadori \u2013 the experienced crew chief established himself within Massimo Rivola\u2019s team structure. In this context, the arrival of Fabiano Sterlacchini as the new chief developer of the RS-GP cannot be overlooked. Romagnoli and Sterlacchini worked closely together for many years at Ducati Corse.<\/p>\n
Although Jorge Martin currently holds the World Championship lead once again, the \u2018Martinator\u2019s\u2019 negotiating position is different. It has been decided that Martin will move to Yamaha Racing \u2018on his own\u2019. Daniele Romagnoli will continue to work for Aprilia Racing in 2027, this time for his compatriot Pecco Bagnaia. After five years, Jorge Martin will part ways with his closest confidant in the pits. Martin will \u2018inherit\u2019 David Munoz \u2013 Valentino Rossi\u2019s most recent crew chief. Munoz is currently looking after the struggling and outgoing factory rider Alex Rins.<\/p>\n
Stability in the Ducati and KTM factory teams<\/p>\n
As things stand, most crew chief positions in the factory teams remain unchanged. Ducati Lenovo will continue with Marco Rigamonti (Marc Marquez), whilst Christian Gabbarini will take charge of Pedro Acosta. At KTM, too, Paul Trevathan and Phil Marron are staying on (for newcomers Fabio Di Giannantonio and Alex M\u00e1rquez).<\/p>\n
Honda is also opting for continuity for 2027. Fabio Quartararo, the 2021 champion, will also be riding solo and will work with Cristhian Pupulin, currently Marini\u2019s crew chief. Meanwhile, it remains unclear who will be working on the other side of the official Honda HRC Castrol pit. Honda has not yet decided whether Diogo Moreira, currently a rookie with LCR-Honda, will be promoted, or whether new signing David Alonso will make the direct leap to the factory team. One thing is certain, however: Andres Madres, the current crew chief for Enea Bastianini (KTM), has been awarded a Honda contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fact that MotoGP riders were, or had to be, signed as a pair \u2013 that is, together…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":826368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-826367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}