Valentino Rossi’s crew chief was ‘useless and the results showed it'

The slide in Valentino Rossi’s form should be attributed to his now ex-crew chief Silvano Galbusera, according to top Motocross and Supercross rider Chad Reed, who describes him as ‘useless’.

Heading into the delayed 2020 MotoGP season, while Rossi is pondering his immediate future within the sport, he has still made a significant change behind the scenes after nominating David Munoz as his crew chief to replace Galbusera.

Though the change was justified as Galbusera wanting to step back from his duties to focus on Yamaha’s test team, Rossi admitted at the time that he’d become a ‘little bit stuck’ with how to move forward after a second winless season in MotoGP.

However, for Reed – whose successful career has spanned 20 years like Rossi and counts the Italian as a ‘good friend’ – Galbusera has been the primary reason for his slump in form in recent seasons, describing him as ‘not being at Valentino’s level’.

"I don't know if he will continue next year, but if Yamaha helps him, who knows,” he told Speedweek. “Perhaps the new chief mechanic will also help. For me personally, his former chief mechanic was useless . I am happy to see that he is doing Changes. 

“I don't know much about the new boy, but I never understood what the previous one was doing there. He wasn't at Valentino's level and the results showed it,”

Galbusera was tapped to replace Jerry Burgess in 2014 but the pairing failed to win a MotoGP World Championship together. Munoz comes in to replace him having cut his teeth working with the Sky VR46 Moto2 team, overseeing Pecco Bagnaia’s run to the 2018 title.