OFFICIAL PROGRAMME
EXCITING CONTENT
Crew Chief is at least one job even the most casual of race fans understands . The person who talks to the rider in the garage and looks after the team of mechanics , surely ? More complicated than that nowadays … There is the technical side , culminating in the final machine set-up for sessions and races . Then there is the human side of any potential race-winning equation . The Hard Machine and the Soft Machine , you could say . We looked at six different individuals , from five of the competing manufacturers in WorldSBK , to try and explain what it means to be a Crew Chief in 2021 , how they got into their jobs and what their personal approach to this complicated task is . First up , from Dusseldorf originally , Michael van der Mark ’ s Crew Chief , Marcus Eschenbacher . You may think that the official BMW garage would be the lifelong home of a German Crew Chief , but Eschenbacher is a well travelled and highly experienced race technician and latterly Crew Chief .
He did , of course , start out on this career at home , however . Almost literally … “ I started in racing when I was 16 as a mechanic of my ex-rider , Michael Galinski - who is the team manager of the Bonovo BMW team in 2021 ,” said Marcus . “ We worked together in Yamaha in the past . Basically he was my neighbour ! I spent a couple of years with him doing the German Pro Superbike series and WorldSBK and so on .” Even as a young mechanic Marcus had started stretching his wings . “ I started to implement a tuning business with a friend of mine for a couple of years , doing jobs for Kawasaki Germany , Suzuki Germany , and Supersport and Superbike . In the meantime , I started to study electronics . That ’ s my standard occupation , an electronic engineer .” This is a real trend , this background in electronics for Crew Chiefs , we will hear even more of this later . “ In ’ 98 , Yamaha Germany called me because they had established the World Supersport team in Germany ,” said Marcus . “ They were searching for Technical
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