LCR Honda crew to remain unchanged for Cal Crutchlow

Cal Crutchlow looks certain to be ending his four-year association with crew chief Daniele Romagnoli after LCR Honda confirmed its garage personnel would remain unchanged for 2015.

Italian Romagnoli has been at Crutchlow’s side since the British rider moved to MotoGP with the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 squad back in 2011.

Crutchlow took Romagnoli, who previously was crew chief for Colin Edwards at Yamaha and briefly Jorge Lorenzo’s factory Yamaha, to Ducati for 2014.

But now Crutchlow has clinched a surprise move to Lucio Cecchinello’s Monaco-based LCR Honda squad, it looks unlikely the British rider will be allowed to bring in any of his own crew when he moves to a factory-backed RC213V.

Cecchinello confirmed to MCN that long-serving crew chief Christophe Bourguignon will remain and be Crutchlow’s crew chief in 2015.

The Italian told MCN: “The crew chief will be Christophe. With HRC we have decided not to change anything to achieve the maximum performance. It will be too risky to change crew chief and mechanics because there is a learning process.

“With the Honda factory bike the electronics are really complex and you need a lot of knowledge. For me there is no reason to change technicians and I don’t want to do it.”

Cecchinello confirmed that Crutchlow had made a request to bring Romagnoli with him, but it was not a stipulation during whirlwind negotiations with the 28-year-old.
He added: “There was some request but not a mandatory request. Our intention with HRC is to just change the rider and nothing else.”