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.
I think it would be very nice and interesting for him to make the jump.
I would like to see him come over but I know how difficult it is.
He’s a Yamaha rider, he’s committed to Yamaha and I think we can be proud of that, but Yamaha should also give him chances for the future.
I think they are trying and willing to do that and I hope for him that he will be here as fast as possible.
He needs a little bit of time to learn as well and MotoGP is a high class.
Today he sent me an sms and he said 34.
9 for the pole position for superbike and we did 34.
5 so maybe I’m competitive!Do you see any similarities between Crutchlow and Lorenzo?They are different for sure, but mentally they are very strong.
Jorge is a different rider who has a different attitude.
Cal can be very rude and rough, so they are different.
But they have room to go faster and to learn very quickly.
Jorge wants to go out every time and learn and make himself better.
Cal has that as well – when you talk, he listens.
Every little bit of good information he picks up and goes faster.
You’re in a strong position now but how are you managing expectations for the rest of the season? Lorenzo is already being nominated champion.
When things go well, everything is alleluia, but things are going to be a little bit more difficult: in qualifying, or rain conditions or just practice errors or pressures.
We can’t expect now that the next coming 13 races we will win.
That would be a miracle, I would say.
So I prepare Jorge like that.
We have this same conversation I’m having with you.
Today he was saying, Stoner is fast.
But I said, hey we need Casey here you know.
He said ‘why?’.
I said, well, the guy behind you in the championship is Dovizioso, Casey is okay now at the moment.
When Casey wins, he’s strong.
We know that Casey can do good races but will he do four or five in a row? I don’t think so, and even if he wins five in a row he’s not the championship leader because that’s still you.
He’s far away and you should concentrate on the next challenger and that’s Dovizioso and Pedrosa because they’re very close.
You seem to have resolved any traction or other problems you were having, are you happy with the bike set-up?Yes, we have a very good base and I think that’s what’s helping us to be on top from the first session on.
Ramon Forcada is doing a really good job.
He investigated exactly what our problems were last year and we have a plan from the first practice.
The bike seems to work really well.
Even the problems we had last year are solved in the first three practices.
95 percent of that is because we have the same bike as last year with just some updates and improvements.
What do you think about the return to the extra practice session on the Friday morning?I hate the Friday at the moment because it’s a bit boring.
There’s nothing to do in the morning.
I don’t think it will make a big difference to Jorge.
He’s a guy who can put the bike quickly on the pace when it has to be done.
And if they go 45 minutes and 45 minutes there’s no extra time.
For the mechanics and the way of working it’s a bit better because you have four chances for a good practice at the moment there’s only three.
I don’t think it will make an impact on the rider safety issue.
Is Lorenzo the one to beat now? Do you think he could have done it with Valentino Rossi still around?That’s a good question but I’m not able to answer that.
I think he would have enjoyed it much more if Valentino were here.
What’s it like for Lorenzo to be in the box with such a high profile teammate?It’s nice to have a teammate on the same bike as you, who is nine times world champion and that’s Jorge’s benchmark.
You see that in many other things, too: Valentino is the benchmark for television, publicity.
Everyone is looking towards him because he’s doing everything right.
He’s always clever and to be on the same bike as him and to be so close so many times and even beating him is unbelievable for a rider Jorge’s age.
He really enjoys that.
If Rossi does leave the team, that makes your side of the box the flag bearer for Yamaha.
How does that make you feel?I will be disappointed if Vale leaves because the whole team is built around him.
All the staff are Italian and they love Valentino.
Who doesn’t love Valentino? They are all Valentino fans.
I’m working for Jorge and he has me as a fan now, too.
I like Valentino, you know he’s a character and you cannot beat him on PR value.
So I will be sad if he leaves the team.
While Rossi is the bigger personality and the more famous rider, you can compete with him on technical terms with the expertise in your box.
Yes.
Jorge is a different kind of rider than Valentino.
In some ways he’s a specialist, he can really focus and adapt himself to the bike.
Valentino works more on the bike to make the bike work for him and Jorge does the opposite.
Okay, he gets a good bike but he adapts himself to the bike.
What’s Jorge like to work with?He’s very funny, he loves to joke.
He’s young, he’s 20 years younger than me.
He’s always fast on the bike and easy to analyse.
Of course on the technical side… he doesn’t need to learn actually, he already says what he feels and that’s an important thing.
Does he have a talent that we don’t know about?He can sing! He loves music and he can really sing quite well.
Do you miss racing yourself?No because I’m fully involved.
I raced and was active from four until like, 34.
I really enjoyed that time but at a certain point you have enough of competition.
You have enough of showing and proving yourself against the whole world.
Then you do it for yourself, you want to win.
But at a certain point you say “to who shall I prove that I can ride a motorcycle”? You’re not that focused anymore on beating somebody and you need that.
I still love to ride bikes, also on the racetrack but with a different feeling: to analyse the bike and the steering.
Of course the adrenalin is nice but if you come in a couple of seconds after, who cares?Would you like to try the M1?Yes.
I’m not stamping on the floor to do it because I know if you want to ride that bike well you need a day to ride it and you don’t get that time.
They could say, okay you can ride it ten laps and in ten laps you can really do nothing.
To analyse the bike and to speed up you need more track time.
Do you have a favourite bike?The Yamaha T-Max [laughs].
The big scooter.
I love that bike.