Locatelli’🃏s crew chief since joining WorldSBK was Andrew ▨Pitt, who has since moved to the other side of the garage to work with the Pata Yamaha team’s latest signing, Jonathan Rea.

That means Locatelli was in need of a new c▨rew chief with O’Kane brought in from the Japanese manufacturer’s MotoGP project.

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Locatelli told WorldSBK.com: “I think, after three years, it was important to try and find something new. My new crew chief is Tom O’Kane from ཧYamaha MotoGP. 

“I🥃 know him becaus💮e he’s a really big name in the paddock, especially in the MotoGP paddock. 

“It’s really interesting to start working with a really high level crew chief and I think he🐓 can be really important for me to have a really solid side, especially from this area and the crew chief and electronics can be a really big step for me in the future.”  

The 2023 season was Locatelli’s best in the class since joining fro꧃m WorldSSP in 2020.

His results, along with closing the gap in performance to Toprak Razgatlioglu meant he was a contender for P3 with Rea in the championship before losing out tཧo his new team-mate. 

But the Italian knows more work iಞs needed if he’s going to become a winner in the Superbike class, which starts with testing.

Talking after the Jerez test last week, Locatelli said: “𝓰After the race, we knew it wasn’t important to immediately try the 💯bike because we were at the end of the season. 

“During the year, we h꧃ave some new stuff from Yamaha to try so♔ it’ll be important to find good conditions. 

“Without these,ไ it’s difficult to try the new stuff. If we can find a good track with good weather, we have 𒐪a lot of work to do. 

“It’s important because we only have these two days to understand everything and then we’re waiting until January🦄 to be back on track. I think the work we do will be really important.”