Alberto Girabola splits from KTM, joining Toprak Razgatlioglu at Pramac?

Just days after celebrating his first Grand Prix podium with KTM, Enea Bastianini has lost crew chief Alberto Girabola for the second time in his MotoGP career.

Girabola, crew chief to title runner-up Andrea Dovizioso before joining forces with Bastianini as a rookie at Ducati, switched to KTM in 2023 in the role of Track Performance Manager.

But he returned to crew chief duties late last year in preparation for a reunion with Bastianini at Tech3 this season.

Although Bastianini struggled badly at the start of his RC16 career, a rapid mid-season rise produced a Sprint rostrum in Brno and Grand Prix podium in Barcelona last weekend.

That will go down as the highlight of the Bastianini-Girabola KTM partnership, with Girabola splitting from the Austrian manufacturer with immediate effect.

However, at Misano on Thursday, Bastianini revealed that the transition to a new crew chief, Xavi Palacin, was already underway last weekend.

"Also in Barcelona, I changed crew chiefs, but we didn't talk about it," Bastianini said. "He is leaving for a second time from my team and now I have a new crew chief, Xavi. 

"We will work the same. He knows very well my style. He was in Monlau when I was in Moto3. And he was close to me from the first race of this season and knows what I need."

After their previous split, Bastianini worked with Marco Rigamonti during two seasons at the factory Ducati Lenovo team. 

Rigamonti then stayed on to partner 2025 title leader Marc Marquez.

Girabola, meanwhile, is now strongly linked with a move to Pramac Yamaha, where he is tipped to become Toprak Razgatlioglu’s crew chief in 2026.

That is something of a surprise, with Razgatlioglu expected to bring his trusted WorldSBK crew chief Phil Marron.

Marron, alongside Razgatlioglu at Kawasaki, Yamaha and now BMW, previously worked in MotoGP with Aspar Ducati and Eugene Laverty.