Christian Pupulin, who serves as Jack Miller's technical manager at KTM, will join Honda next year and replace Giacomo Guidotti on Luca Marini's side of the garage, Motorsport.com has learned.
With the rider market having now settled down after some bombshell announcements around the Italian GP, the focus has shifted to some of the leading engineers on the grid.
With the exception of Fabiano Sterlacchini, who has not renewed his contract with KTM for family reasons, the most common thing in these cases is for engineers and technicians to move from one garage to another, in many cases following the riders who call upon them.
However, that's not the case with Pupulin, who joined KTM a year and a half ago after having spent almost a lifetime at Ducati, where he worked with top-level riders such as Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso, among others.
It has emerged that the Australian will not remain with KTM next year and will join Honda in 2025 to begin a new role as the engineer in charge of Marini's bike.
Since starting a new chapter with HRC at the beginning of 2024, Marini has been working with Guidotti, who joined the Japanese marque brand in 2017 and has since engineered the likes of Dani Pedrosa, Joan Mir and Takaaki Nakagami, the last-named with the satellite LCR team.
In this regard, it is worth noting that in his talks with Honda, Marini asked HRC to give him the option of working with Santi Hernandez, who until that point had been a key figure in Marc Marquez's entourage. Marquez had tried to take Hernandez with him, but it was a move that ultimately failed.
At that point, Mir asked Honda to assign Hernandez to him, a request which the Japanese manufacturer agreed to.
Marini ended up working with Guidotti but will have a new engineer in the form of Pupulin next year.
The change of brand for 'Pipi', as the aeronautical engineer is popularly known in the paddock, will not be the only major shuffle in 2025. Motorsport.com already reported a few weeks ago that Marquez will inherit Marco Rigamonti as track engineer when he replaces Enea Bastianini at the factory Ducati team next year.
Bastianini will move to Tech3 KTM, where he will be reunited with Alberto Giribuola, who was in charge of running his satellite Ducati bike at Gresini. Giribuola later moved to KTM as an engineering coordinator and remained with the Austrian manufacturer till late.
Motorsport.com expects Jose Manuel Cazeaux to assist Maverick Vinales on the other side of the Tech3 garage. Vinales had recruited Cazeaux to Aprilia after making his MotoGP debut with him at Suzuka in 2015.
At Aprilia, it remains to be seen who will be in charge of facilitating Jorge Martin's adaptation to the RS-GP. Motorsport.com understands that one of the main candidates for the role is Daniele Romagnoli, who currently already accompanies the Spaniard at Pramac.
Despite having a contract with Ducati, the Borgo Panigale manufacturer has already told him that his services are not required for 2025.
Another engineer likely to change brands is Antonio Jimenez, who is in talks with Honda to join the team with Aleix Espargaro, who will serve as the brand's test rider next year.
It is still unclear who will assist Marco Bezzecchi's arrival at Aprilia, especially if Cazeaux leaves with Vinales. One of the most sought-after names is David Munoz, who made his MotoGP debut in 2021 after a call-up from Valentino Rossi.
The Spaniard is currently working with Fabio Di Giannantonio at VR46 and is set to land a factory GP25 next year as part of his current role. However, the most likely destination for the technician is Pramac, which will be racing Yamaha bikes from next season.
