Ramón Forcada bids farewell to MotoGP with Dovizioso

As Motorsport.com has learned, Yamaha has decided that Cal Crutchlow, who will replace Dovizioso in the six rounds that will take place until the end of the season, will be accompanied by Silvano Galbusera as crew chief. Galbusera was technical manager at Valentino Rossi between 2014 and 2019, before moving on to manage the test team box, first with Jorge Lorenzo (2020) and then with Crutchlow.

The British performs the role of test driver of the tuning fork brand and will assume the role of starter in the final stretch of the calendar, after Andrea Dovizioso opted for a premature retirement as a result of his poor results.

The farewell of the Forlí rider will also coincide with that of Ramón Forcada , one of the most renowned and successful engineers in the MotoGP paddock. The one from Moià (1957) has accumulated more than three decades and more than 500 grand prix on his record –an event he celebrated in Misano two years ago–, has worked with 14 different riders and has won four world titles.

The Catalan made his debut with Alex Crivillé in 1989, the year in which the rider from Seva won his first 125cc World Championship with JJ Cobas. In this sense, Forcada was one of the outstanding students of Antonio Cobas , one of the most influential engineers in the development of the history of racing prototypes.

In any case, the greatest recognition came to Forcada later on, especially in the heavy bike category, where he accompanied riders of the stature of John Kocinski , Alex Barros , Carlos Checa and Casey Stoner , all of them with Honda. But his stage of greatest conquests was in Yamaha and as a guide for Jorge Lorenzo, whom he accompanied in the landing of the Mallorcan in MotoGP (2008), and with whom he sang the alirón in the three Balearic titles (2010, 2012 and 2015).

Lorenzo wanted to take him to Ducati in 2017, but the engineer chose to remain at Yamaha, alongside Maverick Viñales, who later decided to replace him with Esteban García (2019). The Iwata constructor, aware of his worth, then placed him in the Sepang Racing Team, now RNF, with Franco Morbidelli, with whom he was proclaimed runner-up in the world in 2020, despite the fact that the Italian had a less developed M1 than the Fabio Quartararo, his workshop neighbor.

The salad of changes caused by the departure of Viñales from Yamaha and the movements that resulted from it, with the promotion of Morbidelli to the official formation, made Forcada remain in the SRT and received Dovizioso , who most likely underestimated the challenge of returning after a six-month break, and doing it with Yamaha, after eight courses competing on a Ducati.

Next year, RNF will become the satellite team of Aprilia, which has preferred to nurture that workshop with engineers and technicians from the Noale factory.

At this point in the film, Forcada would only continue to be linked to the World Cup, in 2023, if he is presented with a sufficiently attractive proposal to consider its continuity.

Team boss Ramon Forcada celebrates Franco Morbidelli’s 500th race, Petronas Yamaha SRT