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2024 will be a year of big changes for the MotoGP starting grid. Starting with Marc Marquez's arrival at the Gresini team, after 11 seasons with Honda. However, the movements in the rider market did not find a direct correspondence with the waltz of the crew chiefs, thus giving rise to many new working pairings, which made their debut on the Tuesday test in Valencia.
None of the six riders who changed teams were in fact followed in their new adventure by their previous crew chief. After seven world titles won with Santi Hernandez at his side, Marc Marquez will therefore find himself facing his new chapter in Ducati under the technical guidance of Frankie Carchedi. Hired by the Gresini team to work with Fabio Di Giannantonio last season, the British engineer can boast a very respectable CV, as evidenced by the title won in 2020 together with Joan Mir, of whom he was crew chief in his four-year period at Suzuki.
Ironically, after Marc's departure it was the 26-year-old from Mallorca who inherited the Catalan's entire technical staff, thus handing over his old team, including crew chief Giacomo Guidotti, to Luca Marini. Having replaced Marini in the ranks of the VR46 team, Di Giannantonio will instead work with David Munoz, the man who followed the Marche native for two seasons, after having worked alongside Valentino Rossi in his last two years in MotoGP.
In his first year astride the Desmosedici GP of the Pramac Racing team, Franco Morbidelli will be able to count on the technical guidance of Massimo Branchini, the engineer hired by Paolo Campinoti's team at the end of 2022 to supervise the garage side of Johann Zarco, with whom he had already won two Moto2 World Championships during his ten-year experience in the KTM Ajo team's garage. As for Zarco, in his debut season aboard the LCR team's RC213V, the 32-year-old Frenchman will be joined by Alex Rins and Alex Marquez's former crew chief, David Garcia.
After his unfortunate period with the Honda entered by Lucio Cecchinello, Alex Rins will instead seek a relaunch on the official Yamaha of the Monster Energy team, where he will be followed by Australian engineer Patrick Primmer, fresh from two years as Morbidelli's crew chief.
The only rider to debut in MotoGP in 2024, the new Moto2 champion Pedro Acosta will instead be managed by the expert crew chief Paul Trevathan, an old acquaintance of Pol Espargaró. In addition to having worked with the Catalan rider in his last season aboard the RC16, the New Zealand technician also accompanied the 32-year-old in his previous experience in the official KTM team, where he followed Espargaró between 2017 and 2020, and then joined Miguel Oliveira in the following two years.
The 2024 rider/crew chief pairings, team by team
Ducati Lenovo Team
- Francesco Bagnaia: Cristian Gabarrini
- Enea Bastianini: Marco Rigamonti
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP
- Fabio Quartararo: Diego Gubellini
- Alex Rins: Patrick Primmer
Repsol Honda Team
- Joan Mir: Santi Hernandez
- Luca Marini: Giacomo Guidotti
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
- Brad Binder: Andres Madrid
- Jack Miller: Cristhian Pupulin
Aprilia Racing
- Aleix Espargaró: Antonio Jimenez
- Maverick Vinales: José Manuel Cazeaux
Prima Pramac Racing
- Jorge Martin: Daniele Romagnoli
- Franco Morbidelli: Massimo Branchini
Gresini Racing
- Alex Marquez: Donatello Giovanotti
- Marc Marquez: Frankie Carchedi
Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team
- Marco Bezzecchi: Matteo Flamigni
- Fabio Di Giannantonio: David Munoz
LCR Honda
- Johann Zarco: David Garcia
- Takaaki Nakagami: Klaus Nöhles
GasGas Factory Racing Tech3
- Pedro Acosta: Paul Trevathan
- Augusto Fernandez: Alex Merhand
Trackhouse Aprilia Racing
- Miguel Oliveira: Giovanni Mattarollo
- Raul Fernandez: Noe Herrera
