New WorldSBK crew chief for Andrea Locatelli: “We needed a bit of a reset”

Andrea Locatelli has a new crew chief at the factory Yamaha team from this weekend at Magny-Cours, which Yamaha boss Niccolo Canepa hopes will help him to recover some confidence.

Locatelli became a WorldSBK race winner for the first time in 2025, taking victory in Race 2 at Assen, but in 2026 has not yet visited the podium and has a best result of only sixth this year, that coming back at Assen in Race 1 of the Dutch Round.

The Italian has changed crew chief for this season; after two years with Tom O’Kane (who moved to other side of the garage to work with Xavi Vierge) he’d taken on Giulio Nava who moved over from the Aruba.it Racing Ducati team where he was Alvaro Bautista’s crew chief.

But the poor results so far this year has prompted a change to be made, and Locatelli now has Emanuele Martielli in his corner at Yamaha.

Yamaha Motor Europe road racing sporting manager Niccolo Canepa spoke to the WorldSBK world feed broadcast during FP1 at Magny-Cours about the change, saying Nava had taken on a broader role in Yamaha’s WorldSBK project while the hope was for the change of crew chief in Locatelli’s side of the garage to bring back some lost confidence.

“We cannot hide it: the performance this year has been lower than the expectations for Loka [Andrea Locatelli], so we needed a bit of a reset to try to help him to regain the confidence,” said Canepa.

“I think to reshuffle a bit the people inside the garage could be a positive thing. 

“Giulio [Nava] is actually helping us with all four bikes as a performance analyst. I think with his experience and this general overview of the bike he can be really helpful for us to support all four bikes. 

“I’m confident that this is the right move to help Loka to regain the confidence and to support better Yamaha.”