New KTM crew chiefs for Binder, Oliveira and Petrucci

KTM may have only made one new rider signing for the 2021 MotoGP season, but three of its four riders will be working with different crew chiefs compared to 2020.

Pol Espargaro's move to Repsol Honda means his four-year partnership with Paul Trevathan comes to an end, the New Zealander staying at the factory Red Bull KTM team to join Espargaro's replacement – and double 2020 Tech3 KTM race winner - Miguel Oliveira.

Oliveira spent his opening premier-class seasons under the guidance of Tech3's renowned technical boss Guy Coulon, the Frenchman signing off his crew chief career in perfect fashion at Portimao when Oliveira took pole position, fastest lap and race victory.

"When we signed with KTM, I told them I would do the first two seasons," Coulon told Paddock-GP.com about stepping back from the race team to work exclusively at the Tech3 headquarters.

"I will continue to deal with what needs to be done while staying away from the circuits. My idea is still to stay at work until 2026, since that is the date we are committed to [for the next MotoGP contract]."

Replacing Coulon at Tech3 as crew chief to new KTM signing Danilo Petrucci will be Sergio Verbena, the Austrian factory confirmed to Crash.net.

Verbena is moving in the opposite direction to Oliveira, having worked with class rookie Brad Binder at the factory KTM team in 2020, where the pair made history with the RC16's first win at Brno.

Re-joining Binder as crew chief for 2021 will be Andres Madrid, who moves to MotoGP from the Red Bull KTM Ajo squad, where he previously partnered Binder in Moto2 before spending last season alongside (Qatar winner) Tetsuta Nagashima.

All of which means the only KTM rider-crew chief pairing to continue unchanged from 2020 will be Iker Lecuona and Nicolas Goyon at Tech3.