One announcement of interest at the Phillip Island MotoGP round was that Jorge Lorenzo's team manager, Daniele Romagnoli, would be stepping down from his role and pursuing a more technical and less managerial role elsewhere. Romagnoli, whose background was as a data engineer and then crew chief, was promoted to team manager to make way for Lorenzo's choice of crew chief Ramon Forcada. But like so many technicians who have been moved up to management, his engineering brain still itches to deal with technical problems, rather than the organizational headaches which face a team manager.
The question of who would take Romagnoli's place has puzzled the paddock over the past couple of weeks, but the German-language motorsports weekly Motorsport-Aktuell is reporting that the answer may be within the Yamaha family. According to MSA, Yamaha World Superbike team boss Massimo Meregalli could move up to MotoGP and take over the role vacated by Romagnoli.
Romagnoli, in turn, could well move into the World Superbike paddock. With Ben Spies taking Tom Houseworth into the MotoGP team with him, there could be a vacancy for a crew chief in the World Superbike garage. Suggestions at Sepang that Romagnoli could take the place of Andrea Dovizioso's crew chief Pete Benson were dismissed by a Honda spokesperson.