Wilco Zeelenberg to spend second season with Factory Yamaha Racing – MotoGP news
Wilco Zeelenberg is nowadays key person to administrate 2010 World Champion Jorge Lorenzo at Factory Yamaha Racing.
Formerly Zeelenberg has been looking after 250GP and World Supersport teams.
Factory Yamaha Racing team manager, Wilco Zeelenberg is starting his second season with this team in 2011 MotoGP season. The Dutchman is also a former MotoGP rider and proves to be a mentor for Yamaha’s prime rider Lorenzo as he can share and understand
well being an ex-rider.
Team manager feels that 2011 MotoGP season is different compared to last season, when it was a new start, as a team everyone has to get to know each other better some things also need a change to get better results.
But after passing through a season like 2010 one can get bond better with the rider and the team crew. He also accepted that the 2010 season start was not an easy task to carry due the peak of competition was holding the track.
Previous managing tasks were pretty different as compared to this. Zeelenberg had talked with the Yamaha Motor Racing Managing Director, Lin Jarvis, to make a better united and performing team out of the Lorenzo’s garage.
On the other side Valentino Rossi’s team was well sorted and performing good. Another task to be looked after was to fill the gap where the team was lacking strength by the absence of the previous manager, making the task difficult. But the team carried
it well and was able to perform in line for the Yamaha structure.
His role is to make his crewmen work efficiently for the racing weekend. A great man in his crew is Ramon Forcada as he has a lot of racing experience and always has a well sorted plan for the race.
Zeelenberg also looks everything happening on the track and keeps a sharp eye on the performance of Lorenzo, whether he is struggling in some sections and need to be helped out or if he is riding fast and ahead of the rest it is easy to see and check
his performance.
The Dutch, Yamaha team manager looks at every point during the race, even including RPM sounds from the engine while riding through the corner as well as the leaning angle of the rider to carry the corner at different speeds, also running to for any
further improvements possible for the rider to gain pace.
The Yamaha team struggled during the test sessions at Qatar, as Lorenzo was riding well and using the package at optimum but as the winds struck the Losail circuit it was difficult for him to carry into the corners and made him struggle. Then at the
Free Practice session Lorenzo was provided with some changes in the setup and he was able to climb up the time sheet.
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