Going into a brand new MotoGP season, attention will always be first and foremost on the big rider changes that have transformed the 2023 grid, especially after a silly season that, thanks in part to the disappearance of Suzuki, proved more volatile than perhaps expected.
But, with a busy rider market comes an equally busy round of crew chief musical chairs as some of the paddock’s most experienced engineers move with their riders, inherit new ones or look for opportunities elsewhere.
Of course, there won’t be movement among some of the biggest players in the sport, as reigning champion Pecco Bagnaia, predecessor Fabio Quartararo, six-time title winner Marc Marquez and 2022 title contender Aleix Espargaro all remain with Cristian Gabarrini, Diego Gubellini, Santi Hernandez and Antonio Jimenez respectively.
But there will still be plenty of others in new clothing and new colours this weekend at Sepang for the series’ pre-season testing, including some surprise last-minute appointments that offer intriguing potential.
Giacomo Guidotti
2022: LCR Honda crew chief for Takaaki Nakagami
2023: Factory Honda crew chief for Joan Mir
Perhaps the biggest surprise is that 2020 world champion Joan Mir hasn’t retained the services of veteran crew chief Frankie Carchedi, so far the only man that he’s worked with during his time in the championship at Suzuki.
With Carchedi’s 2023 destination believed to be one of the stumbling blocks that meant Mir’s new Repsol Honda contract took a long time to pull together, it was eventually not the British engineer but rather Ramon Aurin who was first announced as partnering up with the Spaniard.
However, that relationship lasted only one test at Valencia at the end of 2022, with the unexpected news coming over winter that Mir would instead be working with Taka Nakagami’s engineer Giacomo Guidotti, as the Honda team restructured its whole set-up and moved Aurin sideways to head up the test team.
It’s still not immediately clear what the motives were, but it’s not likely to be an ideal resolution either way for Mir – a rider known to have needed to get himself positioned just so on the Suzuki and who will be no doubt concentrating again on ergonomics in Sepang.
Elsewhere at Honda, Nakagami will work with former test team crew chief Klaus Nohles, while Alex Rins, initially set to work with Cal Crutchlow’s former LCR Honda crew chief Christophe Bourguignon, will now be joined by David Garcia, formerly Alex Marquez’s data engineer until he was promoted into the number one spot in the garage for 2022.
Cristhian Pupulin
2022: Factory Ducati crew chief for Jack Miller
2023: Factory KTM crew chief for Jack Miller
The biggest defection of 2023 is perhaps the outflow of Ducati talent to KTM, headed up by Australian Jack Miller’s coup in being able to take veteran crew chief Cristhian Pupulin with him from the Italian brand.
Pupulin had been a Ducati stalwart for years, and has worked with Miller since he first joined Ducati’s satellite Pramac squad four seasons ago. An employee of the brand for 20 years, he’s worked with everyone from Marco Melandri and Nicky Hayden to Scott Redding and Andrea Dovizioso, and will bring a wealth of information and different thinking with him to KTM.
Of course, he’s not the only Ducati employee also making the move for 2023, as Enea Bastianini’s former crew chief Alberto Giribuola also switches to KTM, albeit not in a crew chief role but rather to become a technical coordinator for satellite team Gas Gas.
That has naturally trickled down elsewhere within Ducati ranks, as new factory rider Bastianini will now line up with Johann Zarco’s crew chief Marco Rigamonti – with 2022 Moto2 title winner Massimo Branchini replacing Rigamonti alongside the Frenchman.
Frankie Carchedi
2022: Factory Suzuki crew chief for Joan Mir
2023: Gresini Ducati crew chief for Fabio Di Giannantonio
On one hand, it’s almost odd to see former championship winner Carchedi partnering up with 2022 Ducati rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio, given the regard within the paddock and especially within Ducati that the Italian-speaking British engineer is held in and given Di Giannantonio’s results in his debut year.
But, with Carchedi likely to have been made multiple offers following the sudden withdrawal of Suzuki, it’s quite telling that he’s elected to go with the young Italian – and could well hint at an untapped potential he believes that he can draw out of Di Giannantonio this coming year.
The 24-year-old’s previous crew chief Donatello Giovanotti, also a rookie in 2022, will move sideways within the Gresini Ducati camp and partner up with new signing Alex Marquez.
Manu Cazeaux
2022: Factory Suzuki crew chief for Alex Rins
2023: Factory Aprilia crew chief for Maverick Vinales
Another good signing from among the Suzuki refugees is Aprilia’s move to secure the services of former Rins engineer Manu Cazeaux, who will rejoin Maverick Vinales for 2023.
First working with Vinales during the latter’s own Suzuki stint, Cazeaux was actually in talks to join the rider at Yamaha in 2019 – but it’s taken until now to finally reunite the pair.
Since the news was announced, Vinales has been gushing about it, too, obviously delighted to be reunited with Cazeaux – an important factor to consider for a rider who values stability so much.
In turn, Vinales’ former engineer Giovanni Mattarollo will move sideways within Aprilia to partner up with new satellite team rider Miguel Oliveira.
Noe Herrera
2022: RNF Yamaha crew chief with Darryn Binder
2023: RNF Aprilia crew chief with Raul Fernandez
Nothing major going on here at first glance – Herrera is staying within the RNF structure and will now be working with someone who is effectively the direct replacement of his previous rider.
But Fernandez and Herrera aren’t strangers – in fact, it was none other than Herrera that was by Fernandez’s side when the young Spaniard put together his historically-good Moto2 season in 2021.
Herrera was given a MotoGP role by RNF for the following year – in what very much seemed to be part of the then-Yamaha satellite squad’s bid to secure Fernandez’s services – and now the Moto2 title-contending pairing are indeed reunited in the premier class.
“I come here, to the box – and it feels like home. I don’t know why, completely different. Because also I come back with my crew chief in Moto2 – this is important for me, and I’m really enthusiastic,” Fernandez said at Sepang on Thursday.
It’s another part of what looks to be a prime opportunity for the mercurial Spaniard to make up for the letdown of his rookie season – but if having Herrera and a compliant RS-GP proves insufficient for a massive improvement on 2022, questions will start to be asked.
Paul Trevathan
2022: Factory KTM crew chief for Miguel Oliveira
2023: Tech3 Gas Gas crew chief for Pol Espargaro
Maybe the most sensible of all the crew chief swaps will see Paul Trevathan back working with Pol Espargaro, albeit not in KTM orange this time but rather the red of new sub-brand Gas Gas, as the Spaniard returns to the Austrian fold and links up yet again with a crew chief who he’s enjoyed success with in the past.
With Trevathan a key component of Espargaro’s team when he spent four years helping build up the KTM RC16 from nothing to a race winner, it only makes sense to pair the duo up again as KTM looks to find the final missing steps needed to make its bike into a credible title contender.
Espargaro is expected to take on the brunt of that on-track testing role for them in 2023, and there’s no better man to have alongside him translating his feedback than someone with as much knowledge of both bike and rider as Trevathan.
MotoGP 2023 crew chiefs
