Hayden gets new Crew Chief

Ducati continue to work towards getting all there riders up to the front of the grid, with several new developments announced after the Jerez round.

The structure of the Ducati Marlboro Team has been changed with the addition of Juan Martinez as Crew Chief to Nicky Hayden, allowing DMT Track Engineer Cristhian Pupulin, who has doubled up as Crew Chief to Loris Capirossi, Marco Melandri and Nicky Hayden since 2006, to spend more time purely on analysing the data collected by all of the Ducati riders. Juan Martinez returns after a stint at Kawasaki.

Nicky Hayden: “I believe that with Cristhian more freed up from some of the normal work as crew chief he can use his expertise more and focus on really working on the issues I am having with the bike and help give us a better direction and give more info to the factory. So to fill his spot we will bring in Juan (Martinez), who has put up some solid results in MotoGP.

He has already worked in Ducati and speaks good English and Italian so he was a good match. I can’t say I don’t have enough good manpower behind me and it has been encouraging to see Ducati trying everything and working so hard to help get me in a situation to deliver. The team is very important in our sport but it is really up to the rider to do his part and make the difference, so I hope I can step up and do my part soon!”

There is constant evolution behind the scenes too, specifically at Mugello, where Ducati test rider Vittoriano Guareschi is preparing to be joined today by Troy Bayliss for the start of a three-day test focused on using the data from the opening three rounds of the season to further develop the GP9.