MRW Issue 41

Crew Chief. For every player, there is a manager.
One wouldn’t exist without the other. The Crew
Chief is the link, the translator, the pacifier and the
problem-solver and the rider’s first touching point
with the sporting world beyond the lines of the
asphalt.
So how did a South African and a Spaniard forge
such a connection? And how did Madrid make his
way up to the point of being a Grand Prix-winning
orchestrater?
After we won the Moto3
world championship
with Brad in 2016, Aki
picked a few of us to
go with him to Moto2.
Instead of data though
he wanted me to be
a Crew Chief. My first
answer was ‘No’!
“I was working in a small national championship
around my home town in Valencia while I was at
University,” the slight, 37-year-old starts to explain.
“I was studying mechanical engineering but I was
always a fan of motorsport. I ended up with an
opportunity to join an established Grand Prix team
from the area and go to the world championship,
but I wanted to graduate first. In my last year at
University, I had a call from Aki Ajo; it was at the
end of 2012 when they had just won the first
Moto3 title with Sandro Cortese. I thought ‘wow,
OK, this is the time’. I knew it would be tough to
study and work but it was just for one year. I didn’t
want to be a mechanic and ended up changing
my field to design engineering, which is more
about ideas. I then wanted to learn more about
electronics because I was leaning more towards
the data side. After that I studied more electronics
and electronic engineering and did a Masters. I
was a few years in the University! I did it together
with a job at the races.”
Madrid’s combination of intelligence, being part
of the paddock community and committing
to the demands of racing meant he started to
find his place in the Grand Prix establishment.
Ironically, he did not see a data role with Ajo and
an emerging talent called Brad Binder in 2015
leading one day to being Crew Chief.
“After we won the Moto3 world championship with
Brad in 2016, Aki picked a few of us to go with
him to Moto2. Instead of data though he wanted
me to be a Crew Chief. My first answer was ‘No’!
I had studied a lot of engineering, and my focus
was on data and strategy and perhaps one day
for MotoGP. I wanted to be a specialist. It wasn’t
my goal to ‘manage’ a team. Aki asked again
and I resisted. I said ‘Aki, I’m sorry, but this is not
my business, and I don’t think it goes with my
strengths’ and the third time he said: ‘OK, I’m not
asking anymore! You have to do it!’”
Ajo clearly saw something in the way that Madrid
exists in the pitbox and in the team dynamic. From
that moment in Moto2, Andrés accelerated his
education once more. “Among the older Crew
Chiefs that we had in the garage – we had Brad
and Miguel Oliveira in Moto2 – was Massimo
Branchini, who is a legend, and I learned a
lot from him. When I started in the Spanish
Championship he was working for another Grand
Prix team and brand and we ended up sharing
a box: I was sitting there in the corner looking
at how the team worked and how professional
they were. It was two-three steps higher or
better than us in the Spanish Championship. I
was asking questions and talking and trying to