Marc Márquez is heading to Ducati for the next MotoGP season, and for the second consecutive year, he will be working with a new crew chief. Upon leaving Repsol Honda, he did not bring Santi Hernández, his long-time crew chief, with him. Instead, he worked with Frankie Carchedi this season at Gresini.
According to Crash.net, it has been decided that the engineer will not accompany Márquez in his move to the factory Ducati team. Instead, Marco Rigamonti, who currently works with Enea Bastianini, will take over. Rigamonti was instrumental in Andrea Iannone’s victory in 2016, which was Ducati’s first win in the Gigi Dall’Igna era.
The Italian engineer returned to Ducati’s factory team to work with Bastianini last year, with the duo winning the Malaysian GP.
Before the Dutch GP, Márquez made it clear that he only requested one mechanic from Ducati — Javi Ortiz, the only one who also came with him from Honda—leaving the rest of the team’s composition to the manufacturer’s decision.