VR46 rider hopes to capitalise on crew chief stability after “roller-coaster” MotoGP season

Fabio di Giannantonio will be starting his fifth MotoGP season in 2026, but it'll be the first where he’s kept the same crew chief.

The Italian was paired with Donatello Giovanotti (now working with title runner-up Alex Marquez) during a difficult 2022 rookie season at Gresini, before taking his first podiums and a win with Frankie Carchedi in 2023.

With Marc Marquez moving to Gresini (and Carchedi) for 2024, Diggia’s end-of-year success saw him switch to VR46 and work with ex-Valentino Rossi and Luca Marini crew chief David Munoz.

But with Munoz returning to the factory Yamaha team as Alex Rins’ new crew chief this season, di Giannantonio’s first year on a factory-spec machine was spent alongside Massimo Branchini.

Branchini played an influential role in Casey Stoner's 250cc career before winning Moto2 titles with Johann Zarco, Remy Gardner and Augusto Fernandez.

The Italian moved to MotoGP in 2023 to re-join Zarco, who needed a new crew chief after Marco Rigamonti was placed alongside Enea Bastianini at the factory team (when Alberto Giribuola joined KTM).

Zarco and Branchini took a debut MotoGP win at Phillip Island before the Frenchman switched to LCR Honda in 2024, when Branchini remained at Pramac with Franco Morbidelli.

With Pramac leaving Ducati for Yamaha this season, Branchini arrived at VR46 to take over from Munoz.

After a podium-less 2024, the first year of the di Giannantonio-Branchini partnership brought nine rostrums (four GPs, five Sprints) and the Italian’s best-yet sixth in the world championship.

But di Giannantonio's season was marred by inconsistency on the GP25, which new champion Marc Marquez took to eleven GP wins (before injury), and factory team-mate Francesco Bagnaia salvaged two GP victories on, plus two Sprint wins.

“Every time you change the staff inside the team, it can be a help if you have, let’s say, better knowledge. But it's difficult because whatever change you do, you initially take like four or five steps back, then you move forward,” di Giannantonio said.

“So for sure, with Massimo, we still have times where we are getting to know each other.

“We are improving the feeling between each other. And we are also sure that for next year we will have the experience of situations we’ve already lived before, so we can already do a step from there.”

di Giannantonio stressed that the most decisive factor in his MotoGP campaign was an unpredictable front-end feeling on the GP25.

“But the main thing of our roller-coaster season has been, at the end, the feeling that it is not consistent with the bike," he continued.

“So it's really difficult for that. But in a group side, we are doing a great job I think, because we've always been on the same path, the same goal.”

Nonetheless, during the closing stages of the season, team manager Pablo Nieto explained that VR46 had tried to change their way of working on di Giannantonio's side of the garage.

“Sometimes it’s very difficult to find the way between the rider, the crew chief and the data guy,” Nieto explained.

“To try to find a good balance takes some time and sometimes it happens also that you must change something.

“It’s not a new system, it’s just a different kind of work, and it looks like it’s a little bit better.”

di Giannantonio finished in the top six during six out of the final eight races, including three podiums.