Jorge Lorenzo won't take MotoGP crew chief with him to Honda
Jorge Lorenzo will split with his current MotoGP crew chief, Cristian Gabarrini, when he moves from Ducati to Honda for 2019


Leading MotoGP riders regularly take their main crew members with them from team to team.
But Lorenzo said that he will have a new chief mechanic in 2019 when he joins the factory Honda team, and that their identity will be decided by his new employer.
Lorenzo has only worked with Gabarrini for his two years at Ducati.
"It's not something that depends on me, whether [Gabarrini] can accompany me," he said.
"Next year I won't have the power to decide that I had in other seasons, it will be a question for [Honda]."
Lorenzo's comments come amid a backdrop of numerous likely MotoGP crew chief movements, now that the 2019 rider market is all but settled.

Maverick Vinales is expected to part ways with the crew chief he inherited from Lorenzo when he joined Yamaha, Ramon Forcada.
Vinales is understood to want to reunite next season with his former chief mechanic at Suzuki, Jose Manuel Cazeaux, who is currently working with Alex Rins.
Forcada is believed to have been targeted by Yamaha to join its new Petronas-backed satellite team expected to join the grid in 2019, as crew chief to Dani Pedrosa - who is tipped to race for the Malaysian-owned squad, along with Franco Morbidelli.
Lorenzo's former team manager Wilco Zeelenberg could become sporting director for the team.
The most likely option for Lorenzo's Honda crew chief is that Pedrosa's former chief mechanic Ramon Aurin - currently assigned to Takaaki Nakagami at LCR - will rejoin the works Honda fold to work alongside the three-time champion.
Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro confirmed on Thursday that his current crew chief Marcus Eschenbacher will not continue with him in 2019, with a replacement yet to be finalised. Eschenbacher is set to instead join KTM.
Danilo Petrucci also revealed that his current engineer Daniele Romagnoli will make the jump from Pramac Ducati to the works team with him next year.

Bautista fears for his MotoGP future amid Pedrosa 2019 team moves
MotGP Assen: World champion Marquez heads Vinales in first practice

Latest news
Why Honda and Yamaha have been left behind in MotoGP's new era
The once all-conquering Japanese manufacturers are going through a difficult period in MotoGP this season. With Suzuki quitting, Honda struggling to get near the podium and Yamaha only enjoying success courtesy of Fabio Quartararo, Japanese manufacturers have been left in the dust by their European counterparts. Key paddock figures explain why.
Who is Valentino Rossi’s newest MotoGP star?
Valentino Rossi’s protégés stole the show at Assen as Francesco Bagnaia stormed to victory to arrest a recent barren run. But it was the rider in second, on Bagnaia’s old bike, who had all eyes on him. Securing his and the VR46 team’s first MotoGP podium, Marco Bezzecchi has all the characteristics that made his mentor special
How Quartararo is evoking an absent MotoGP great in 2022
OPINION: Fabio Quartararo has seized control of the 2022 MotoGP world standings after another dominant victory as his nearest rivals faltered. And he is very much heading towards a second championship echoing how the dominator of the last decade achieved much of his success
The human importance of Marquez’s latest enforced MotoGP absence
OPINION: Marc Marquez will likely sit out the remainder of the 2022 MotoGP season to undergo a fourth major operation on the right arm he badly broke in 2020. It is hoped it will return him to his brilliant best after a tough start to the season without a podium to his name. But it’s the human victory that will far outweigh any future on-track success he may go on to have
Why Ducati holds all the power in its MotoGP rider dilemma
OPINION: The French Grand Prix looks to have made Ducati’s decision on its factory team line-up simpler, as Enea Bastianini stormed to his third win of the campaign and Jorge Martin crashed out for a fifth time in 2022. But, as Ducati suggests to Autosport, it remains in the strongest position in a wild rider market
The seismic aftershock left by Suzuki's decision to leave MotoGP
Suzuki's sudden decision to leave the MotoGP World Championship at the end of the season has acted as a stirring element in a market that had already erupted. Autosport analyses what this means for the grid going into 2023
How the real Ducati began to emerge in MotoGP’s Spanish GP
Ducati’s 2022 MotoGP bike has had a tough start to life and the expected early-season title charge from Francesco Bagnaia did not materialise. But the Spanish Grand Prix signalled a turning point for both the GP22 and Bagnaia, as the 2021 runner-up belatedly got his season underway after a straight fight with Fabio Quartararo
How Honda's praise for its 2022 MotoGP bike has turned into doubt
In a little over two months, Honda has gone from setting the pace in MotoGP testing with its new RC213V prototype to being at a crossroads - caused by the discrepancy in its riders' feedback. After a Portuguese GP that underwhelmed, serious questions are now being asked of Honda in 2022