Le Mans MotoGP: Nicky Hayden boosted by crew change

American Nicky Hayden will be under the guidance of experienced crew chief Juan Martinez from this weekend’s French MotoGP onwards.

The Spaniard will lead Hayden’s crew to try and help the 2006 world champion after his nightmare start with Ducati’s official factory team.

Martinez, who previously worked with Spaniard Sete Gibernau at Honda and Ducati before he returned to MotoGP with Kawasaki in 2008, will step in as Hayden’s crew chief to free up Christhian Pupulin to concentrate on a more general technical management role with the Bologna squad.

Team boss Livio Suppo said: “After the race at Jerez we had a few meetings to analyse our technical and organisational structure, with the goal of improving the all-round performances of our riders.

“We came to the conclusion that after starting the season with not all of the Ducati riders able to match their positive form in winter testing, maybe this is the right time to introduce some new technical ideas in terms of the electronics as well as boosting our track presence in order to provide all of the Ducati riders with better support.

“The GP9 is still a very young machine and for the first time in MotoGP we have five bikes on the grid.

“For these two reasons we have decided that we need to concentrate more on co-ordinating all the data that we gather at each race in order to provide more direction for development.

“As well as changing the structure of the team we have some electronic updates and Cristhian Pupulin will be able to completely dedicate his time to the important role of co-ordination, which we need to continue to develop the GP9.

“It is a welcome return for Juan (Martinez), who worked with us in 2006 and we are sure he can quickly settle back in to life at Ducati Marlboro Team.”

Hayden, who has scored just five points in the opening three races and has struggled severely to adapt to the new carbon fibre chassis GP9, said: “I think the changes should help me and all the Ducati riders.

“I believe that with Cristhian more freed up from some of the normal work as crew chief he can use his expertise more and focus on really working on the issues I am having with the bike and help give us a better direction and give more info to the factory.

“So to fill his spot we will bring in Juan (Martnez), who has put up some solid results in MotoGP. He has already worked in Ducati and speaks good English and Italian so he was a good match.

“I can’t say I don’t have enough good manpower behind me and it has been encouraging to see Ducati trying everything and working so hard to help get me in a situation to deliver.

“The team is very important in our sport but it is really up to the rider to do his part and make the difference, so I hope I can step up and do my part soon.”