The 2020 season has not yet started and she is even unable to give a start date, but, behind the scenes, the discussions are not subject to confinement. Recently, the Petronas Yamaha case has hit the headlines. Razlan Razali ignited the powder by evoking the prospect of Fabio Quartararo still in Malaysian colors in 2021, due to a year 2020 possibly for nothing. Maio Meregalli, from the Yamaha factory team, realigned the focus by specifying that the subject also concerned the assurances given to Valentino Rossi. Today, it is Wilco Zeelenberg for Petronas which brings grist to the mill…
Wilco Zeelenberg is the manager of a team Petronas Yamaha which will experience its second season in MotoGP in 2020 as a satellite team of the Iwata manufacturer, after a resounding debut. A brilliant start to her career among the elite that she owes to her discovery Fabio Quartararo, to whom she placed her trust when he was only a hope. A convincing journey which opened the doors to the official structure for the Frenchman for 2021 and 2022. But in 2020, he will compete with, already, a state-of-the-art M1.
Meanwhile, Valentino Rossi must find a place for himself, since his is already promised to another. The idea is that it slides home Petronas succeeding his successor. A simple plan. But it's actually complicated. Because the parties have apparently not yet sat down at the table to act on all these good intentions. And for good reason, it seems that they contradict a vocation: that of the team Petronas to promote young people…
Wilco Zeelenberg expresses the complexity of the problem as follows: “ we are not under pressure because we are in a situation where many drivers want to come to our team ", the Petronas team principal told GPspirit. “ Of course we have drivers in mind that we would like to have. But I can't give any names. We have the time. First we have to wait and see when and if the championship starts »
Project Petronas was born precisely to give space to young riders and in the first year in MotoGP he achieved extraordinary results, beyond expectations with fabio quartararo. So much so that this year, the world title is squarely targeted, if there is a championship. “ We saw with Fabio that there is always a rider who can ride this bike very well. When we hired Fabio, no one was interested in him. We wanted him because we knew his skills. As a successor, we have a few names in mind that we think can work very well. Our team structure is organized to attract new talent and train them for a factory team in the future. It was our wish ", said Wilco Zeelenberg.
Certainly, but, suddenly, what place for the quadra Valentino Rossi, starting from the principle that the place of Franco Morbidelli is a priori in no way threatened? “ The Valentino news is another story. We haven't talked to Yamaha about it yet.. » A conclusion which highlights the scale of the problem to be solved…
