Rossi Short of Crew Chief, Jeremy Burgess Misses Mugello

As if things were not dark enough for Valentino Rossi, who experiences difficulties in finding the right settings for his Ducati bike, The Doctor still has to face further obstacles this season. The team today announced that Rossi’s crew chief, Jeremy Burgess, will not be present at Mugello this coming weekend.

Burgess had to return to Australia to be with his wife, who must undergo a series of medical exams and a possible urgent surgical procedure.

Replacing Burgess will be Max Bartolini, who normally works as Team Technical Manager on the Ducati Marlboro Team. Fabiano Sterlacchini will fill that role this week, who normally works as Team Technical Manager and Track Engineer for Loris Capirossi (misses the Italian GP due to injury).

“First of all I’d like to wish good luck to Jeremy, who won’t be able to join us this weekend due to very important personal reasons. We’ll miss him very much in the garage, but we look forward to seeing him at the Sachsenring,” said Rossi, sending his best wishes to Burgess.

“In the meantime, we must try to do well at Mugello. We’ve ridden there with the GP12, but because our bike is an 800, it responds a little differently to adjustments, and it’s also in its first phase of development. It will be vital to quickly find the right path for the setup, as it’s important that we improve in every session in order to qualify in a good position,” the Italian added.

“The track is one of my favorites, and I’ve always done pretty well there. Returning after last year’s accident is no problem for me, because I enjoyed riding there during the recent tests, as I always do. I hope there will be a big crowd and that I’ll be able to do better than we’ve managed until now, because this is a very important race,” concluded Rossi, confident in a good result this weekend.