The team manager of the Petronas team is very proud of his new recruit, whom he sees winning very soon.
If there is one that Fabio Quartararo impresses, it's good Wilco Zeelenberg. And the latter has spent enough years in the paddock to know how to manage a young driver and bring him to the highest level, which undoubtedly helps the Frenchman achieve his good results.
“Our strong point is that we make sure to let our drivers advance with their talent, believe in themselves, and achieve results” he explained to GP One. “It is the driver who must have the desire to win, we cannot instill it in him. I know from experience that to allow a driver to give the best of himself you have to make sure that he believes in himself. There is no point putting pressure on him, because there is then the risk that he will want to do too much and make mistakes, like Fabio did at Sachsenring and Silverstone. »
“He's not Iron Man, he's talented but he still has to learn. But he can definitely win, and hopefully this season. If he hadn't had his arm problems, the compartment syndrome, he could have already won a race. » Confident in the skills of number 20, he never stopped following the evolution of his career, even when he went through complicated periods.
“It wasn’t magic” he recalled. “When at 14 you win the Spanish Moto3 Championship and you beat your opponents in a top championship at that age, everyone says you have a lot of talent. I did the same thing. I can't say what happened to him next, I don't know. At 15-16 years old, you are in the middle of puberty and it's not the best time in life (laughs). He had problems with his manager, he changed teams two or three times and all that doesn't help. But I always thought he had the talent to make a difference. »
Photo credit: MotoGP.com
