Bold claim: stability in the team lineup could unlock Fabio di Giannantonio’s best MotoGP season yet. After a roller-coaster 2025, the Italian rider heads into 2026 with his fifth season and, for the first time, the same crew chief across the year.
Di Giannantonio’s journey has been a carousel of partnerships. He began under Donatello Giovanotti in his 2022 Rookie season at Gresini, a tenure that saw his first podiums and a win arrive later with Frankie Carchedi in 2023. With Marc Marquez switching to Gresini and Carchedi in 2024, Di Giannantonio moved to VR46 and teamed with ex-Valentino Rossi ally David Munoz. When Munoz later returned to the factory Yamaha squad as Alex Rins’ crew chief, Di Giannantonio started 2024 with Massimo Branchini.
Branchini’s pedigree is substantial, having guided Casey Stoner in the 250cc ranks and later steering Moto2 champions like Johann Zarco, Remy Gardner, and Augusto Fernandez. The Italian’s MotoGP return in 2023 also saw a reunion with Zarco, who needed a new crew chief after Marco Rigamonti’s reassignment at the factory team. Zarco and Branchini claimed a debut MotoGP win at Phillip Island before Zarco moved to LCR Honda in 2024, leaving Branchini at Pramac with Franco Morbidelli. As Pramac shifted from Ducati to Yamaha for this season, Branchini joined VR46 to succeed Munoz.
After a podium drought in 2024, the di Giannantonio–Branchini pairing produced nine podium finishes in 2025 (four Grands Prix and five Sprint races), marking the Italian’s best global result to date with a career-best sixth in the world championship. Yet the season was clouded by inconsistency on the GP25, a bike that helped propel Marc Marquez to eleven GP wins before his injury and allowed Francesco Bagnaia to snatch two GP wins and two Sprint victories.
Di Giannantonio reflected on the impact of staff changes: changes can bring fresh knowledge, but they often require a temporary setback before progress is made. “When a new staff member joins, there can be a benefit from their knowledge, but it’s common to take four or five steps back before moving forward,” he noted. He acknowledged that, with Massimo, there are still moments of getting to know each other but stressed that the working relationship is improving and that they’ll already be able to leverage prior experiences for a step forward in 2026.
The core issue, according to Di Giannantonio, remains the bike’s front-end feel on the GP25. He described the season as a roller-coaster and said the root problem was an inconsistent connection between rider and machine, despite strong team cohesion and shared goals.
VR46 team manager Pablo Nieto offered a candid view on the garage dynamics: balancing the rider, crew chief, and data analyst is challenging, and sometimes adjustments are necessary. He emphasized that it’s not a new system, just a different mode of working, and that the changes appear to be yielding improvement.
In the closing phase of the year, Di Giannantonio delivered six top-six results in the final eight races, including three podiums. The trajectory suggests that a stable crew-chief relationship could be the catalyst for maximum performance in 2026, provided the front-end problem on the GP25 is resolved.
Controversial takeaway: some fans argue that frequent staff shifts are part of MotoGP’s culture and may be essential for injecting new ideas, while others believe continuity is indispensable for developing a rider’s comfort and trust with the bike. Where do you stand on this tension between change and stability in a championship as demanding as MotoGP? Share your thoughts in the comments.
