Wall to split James Toseland and Colin Edwards’ Tech 3 pit

The tension between Colin Edwards and James Toseland over the controversial winter crew chief switch will see a dividing wall split the pair in the Tech 3 Yamaha garage, MCN exclusively reveal.

The drastic measure has been implemented at the request of Texan Edwards, who was infuriated when his 2008 crew chief Gary Reynders moved to work with British rider Toseland for 2009.

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Edwards believes Toseland and Reynders carefully orchestrated the move behind his back, and he’s launched several scathing verbal attacks on the pair during the winter.

Edwards will now work with Toseland’s old crew chief Guy Coulon, who Toseland struggled to with in his rookie campaign over communication issues.

The move though saw Edwards vow never to speak to Toseland again, but his resentment has deepened to the point where team boss Herve Poncharal and Yamaha have granted his wish for a dividing wall to be introduced.

Toseland, Edwards and Poncharal have yet to comment on the new wall as they are all currently travelling to the Jerez circuit in Spain.

The wall splitting the Edwards and Toseland is similar to Yamaha’s factory team. A wall was introduced last season to split Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo while they were on different tyre brands.

Rossi raced for Bridgestone while Spaniard Lorenzo’s rookie campaign was spent on Michelin rubber.

Fiat Yamaha though will keep the dividing wall for 2009, even though Rossi and Lorenzo will both run Bridgestone as part of the new single tyre rule.