Locatelli’s crew chief since joining WorldSBK was Andrew Pitt, who has𒁃 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 crew chief with O’Kane brought in fr💎om the Japanese manufacturer’s MotoGP project.

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Locꦡatelli 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 Yamaha MotoGP. 🥀;

“I know him because he’s a 🦋really big name iꦕn the paddock, especially in the MotoGP paddock. 

“It’s really interesting to start work෴ing 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.”  

T💜he 2023 season was Loc🐎atelli’s best in the class since joining from WorldSSP in 2020.

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

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

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

“During the year, we have some new stuff from Yamaha to try so it’ll be important to fi✅nd good condit༺ions. 

“Without these, it’s difficult to try the new stuff. I♍f we can find a good track with good weather, we have a lot of wo🌠rk to do. 

“It’s important because we only have thꦏese 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.”