Valentino Rossi has announced he will split with crew chief Silvano Galbusera ahead of the 2020 season, with Moto2 man Davide Munoz to replace him.
Galbusera will become the third crew chief to work alongside Rossi , with Jerry Burgess-who worked with Rossi to secure all of the Italian’s nine premier class titles- being the first.
Rossi split with Burgess ahead of the ’14 campaign after suffering two lean years at Ducati, with his comeback year at Yamaha in ’13 also not yielding the results he had hoped for.
His form took an immediate upturn as a result of the change, going on to secure runner-up in the championship over the next three years-albeit narrowly missing out on a tenth title to Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo in a tense ’15 finale- with eight wins.
Rossi has failed to win since mid-’17 though, and has struggled to keep up with current team-mate Maverick Vinales and Petronas SRT satellite man Fabio Quartararo so far this season, while Johann Zarco also gave him something to think about across his two campaign’s with the Tech 3 Yamaha squad.
He has also failed to step onto the podium since the third round of the year at the Circuit of the Americas in April, while Vinales has secured five rostrum visits since then-including a victory at Assen.
This has culminated in Rossi deciding to split with Galbusera and team up with Munoz, who currently works as crew chief to Niccolo Bulega in Rossi’s VR46 Moto2 team.
Munoz also ran current Pramac MotoGP rider Francesco Bagnaia to the '18 Moto2 world championship title, and will swap with Galbusera as he will move to another role within the Yamaha organisation.
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