Wilco Zeelenberg serves in the Movistar Yamaha box as Maverick Vinales' riding advisor, a role he previously held for Jorge Lorenzo. Or the equivalent of Luca Cadalora for Valentino Rossi.
Suffice to say that the former 250 cc rider is well placed to compare and explain the differences in riding styles and their consequences on the behavior of the motorcycle.
It's the friend again Peter Mc Laren who, for Crash.net, collected the words of the former Dutch pilot in a very rich interview, the relevant extract of which we report here.
Wilco Zeelenberg : “If I compare him with Jorge, Jorge is very fluid, calm and gentle with the front, basically. And Maverick is more aggressive with the front tire, but especially with the Michelin, he makes it work a little better. It brakes the bike very well and because of this it can brake a little later and deeper in the corners. And he uses his position on the front of the bike more than Jorge. Jorge, as soon as he brakes, positions himself [on the bike] to have this top speed. Maverick wants to turn the bike faster, and by being more forward, he turns better and exits sooner. And it controls the rear brake very well, in left and right turns.
So our basic setup is a little different than Jorge's. With Jorge we sometimes fought to get the bike to be correct under braking because we couldn't do the same things with the settings that we can do now with Maverick. Because Jorge wasn't braking so hard and so late. So in terms of springs and adjustments, we can do different things with Maverick, which is very interesting.
Several times, we struggled with Jorge when braking, but with Maverick, the bike brakes well and late. It's interesting for us to see and resolve many small problems that we had encountered with Jorge over the past two years. It was based on his riding style. »
Crash.net: Is Maverick's style similar to Rossi's?
Wilco Zeelenberg : “No, he drives in a different way than Vale. He's strong, so he uses a lot of his body strength to change the direction of the bike. But in a different way from Vale. Vale is tall and thin. So the sizes are different. They complain about different things on the bike, mainly due to the riding style.
Maverick is strong and very fit. Even in the last five rounds he still has energy. I see this also throughout the weekend, because he usually always gets up early. He just has a lot of energy. Not just from training, but also from his DNA. »
