Not fully certain what to make of this news.

On one hand, Locatelli did very well last year with an LE bike and in a small team, so it could work out.

However the flip side is Chaz Davies' story from last year - he was supposed to get an LE bike with Campetella (who I would rate a small step higher up the grid than Matteoni) as was his team-mate Taro Sekiguchi.

You can check out what happened to Chaz on these stories (they're in order):

http://www.crash.net/feature_view~cid~6~id~8581.htm
http://www.crash.net/feature_view~cid~6~id~8744.htm
http://www.crash.net/feature_view~cid~6~id~8799.htm
http://www.crash.net/feature_view~cid~6~id~8879.htm

And well, the rest follows:
http://www.crash.net/driver_columns~lstid~30~cid~6.htm

Whatever, he had an absolute team-related nightmare and it cost him his GP career.

On the plus side, it seems Dorna have had a little helping hand in making sure Westy's on the grid with this move, so hopefully he won't endure the same kind of shambles that Chaz and Taro had last season.