Off the back of his own talent and on the strength of the Fiat Yamaha team, Jorge Lorenzo is the undisputed number one rider in MotoGP at the moment and we had a chance to talk to his team manager, Wilco Zeelenberg after today’s qualifying at the MotoGP Assen. It’s hard not to like Zeelenberg, with his twinkly blue eyes and enthusiastic manner.

While it’s clear he’s good natured, we think this probably belies his efficiency and professionalism in the box itself. With Lorenzo’s recent success, the team dynamic and the bike set-up has found its sweet spot for the moment, and the team is riding high right now. Zeelenberg still brings a down-to-earth attitude to the management as he knows they’ve got a long way to go yet.

Our conversation starts just as Zeelenberg gets a message about his old protégé, Cal Crutchlow, and Crutchlow’s start at the Misano SBK.

Given that you won with Crutchlow last year, would you have liked to see him on the Yamaha Tech 3 bike and how do you think he would have done?

Yes, of course. I think he deserved a seat on the superbike first of all. Ok, so he was planning on going to Moto2 but I’m happy he’s staying with Yamaha. Yamaha had an option on him, and I pushed for him to stay with Yamaha. I said “let him go and he will run against you the next three, four years”. I’m very positive about him, he has a strong mind, and he’s talented and fit. He has space for speed. Supersport was nice for him but has space to go faster and that’s what I saw last year, and what was already proven in superbike as well.

Continue reading: Assen interview with Wilco Zeelenberg: Lorenzo team manager talks to TwoWheels

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Straight from Yamaha’s winning Supersport team with Cal Crutchlow, Wilco Zeelenberg has been confirmed as Daniele Romagnoli’s replacement and will be Jorge Lorenzo’s new Team Manager.

Zeelenberg, a former Gran Prix and Supersport rider, before joining Yamaha Motor Europe as a Technical Coordinator and test rider and in 2008 took over the role of Team Manager in Yamaha’s World Supersport Team.

With the appointment of Zeelenberg, Lorenzo’s side of the garage is almost complete after loosing Romagnoli to Tech3 Moto2 and Andrea Zugna, Cristian Battaglia and Carlo Luzzi to Honda HRC. Takashi Moriyawa who comes directly from Yamaha Motor Racing will be one of the engineers, while Lorenzo’s telemetry analyst has yet to be confirmed, but it could be Davide Morelli.

Continue reading: MotoGP : Wilco Zeelenberg, Jorge Lorenzo’s new Team Manager

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