A little less than ten years ago, Andrea Dosoli replaced at the head of the official Yamaha Superbike team Massimo Meregalli and Wilco Zeelenberg, who then became respectively Director and team manager of the MotoGP team, after having managed the Superbike team from 2005 to 2010, and winning the only WSBK title for Yamaha with Ben Spies in 2009.
Under pressure from Yamaha, Meregalli even became Valentino Rossi's personal manager for a time, after the campionissimo was forced to pay 35 million arrears to the Italian tax authorities. Yam wanted the Augean stables cleaned, and it was done thoroughly by Massimo and Wilco.
Meregalli was then replaced at the head of the Superbike team by the director of the Forward team in Moto2, his Italian colleague Andrea Dosoli. During the 2010 season with Forward Racing, he won with Jules cluzel the unforgettable Silverstone Grand Prix in Moto2 with 0.05 ahead of Tom Lüthi.
As for the Suzuka 8 Hours, the official Yamaha team won the event in 2015 with Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaró, in 2016 with Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Alex Lowes and Pol Espargaró, in 2017 with Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark and finally in 2018 with Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark. 2019 was going less well with the victory conceded controversially to the Kawasaki Racing team. The decision was then made: only YART R1 will represent Yamaha officially this year.
“Unfortunately, the spread of the coronavirus has forced motorsport to review its plans, explained Dosoli to Riccardo Gugliemetti of GPOne.com. The various championship organizers are actually thinking about how to restart their respective series and it certainly won't be easy. One of them is undoubtedly that of endurance. Suzuka was scheduled for July and now it has been decided to do so move to November 1, once again recognizing it as the grand finale of the Championship. »
Andrea, moving the race to November means we will have to forget about the GP drivers since the race will take place between Jerez and Misano.
“It will not be easy for pilots to travel between Europe and Japan in such a short time. With the addition of managing the problem linked to time zones. There are also other aspects to take into account. Superbike riders are used to using Pirellis in the World Championship, while at Suzuka they have to quickly adapt to Bridgestones. It's definitely not an easy thing to make a leap like that. »
Last year, Rea had in fact placed more and more emphasis on this aspect during the WSBK weekend in Jerez, after returning from the Suzuka tests.
“I can imagine it. Unfortunately, you are used to racing with a bike and certain components during the year and when you are at Suzuka you find yourself in a very different context, where you have little time to adapt and you have to be competitive immediately. »
Why is Yamaha not officially participating in Suzuka this year? You also had the new R1.
“We are sorry not to be at the start of the 8 Hours in an official capacity, but we have decided to concentrate all our efforts on MotoGP and I think we have seen the efforts made in recent months, since the premier category of the Championship World is our priority. It was the choice, also because Yamaha achieved all the objectives it set for the 8 Hours, triumphing from 2015 to 2018.”
A significant decision, given the new contractual agreements and the return of a driver like Lorenzo as a test driver?
“The decision to calibrate resources on MotoGP seems significant to me. For Suzuka, a team like Yamaha must rely on a work group of 40 people, including technicians, mechanics and engineers. Commitment to the track begins in February with the first tests. The workload is very heavy, which is why the investment has been focused on MotoGP. Anyway, we will be at Suzuka for the 8 Hours with the YART team, our drivers Fritz, Nozane and obviously Canepa. »
Photos © Yamaha
