In the period after his active racing career, Wilco Zeelenberg has so far only worked for Yamaha in the MotoGP scene. For the 2023 season, however, the team manager from the Netherlands will join the Aprilia camp with the RNF team. RNF will have at least one new driver in the new season as Andrea Dovizioso will retire before the end of the 2022 season but will only be replaced by Cal Crutchlow until the end of 2022. Whether Darryn Binder will stay with the RNF team is an open question.
When it comes to the question of who will drive for RNF in 2023, Aprilia also has a say. But what Zeelenberg can already say is that he will not have a new Fabio Quartararo in his ranks in the new season. Today’s RNF team manager, who once brought Quartararo from the Moto2 class to Petronas-Yamaha in the MotoGP class, makes it clear to selected media, including our Dutch sister platform “Motorsport.com Nederland”: “There is not even a new Fabio as well.”
“If you look at the new generation of MotoGP riders, they’re 25 years old at most,” notes Zeelenberg, citing: “‘Pecco’ [Bagnaia] is simply the new generation at 25 years old. Drivers such as Rins or Oliveira are 27 or older. These guys have seen a little bit more. They’re young people, but they’re 27. In my opinion, if you’re older than 25 today, you’re part of the older generation.”
“There aren’t that many Fabios, Jorges, Valentinos or Marcs”
“Fabio was very young at 19, but he had a completely different career before that,” Zeelenberg thinks back to the time when he became aware of Quartararo and brought the Frenchman into the Petronas Yamaha team at the time. “He was very fast when he was young. There’s nothing like that anymore.”
“There aren’t that many Fabios, Jorges, Valentinos or Marcs. It takes time to find a gem like that. I’ve had the good fortune to work with people like that a few times, but you don’t just do something like that. There are a process that precedes it and that is very important,” says the team manager.
And what is the status of the driver search at RNF for the 2023 season? “At the moment we are not the ones who can go public with it. There are reasons that will be found out later,” Zeelenberg alludes to the fact that the new technical partner Aprilia has a say on this topic.
“It’s not that we want to be secretive, but there are some things that go on behind the scenes that we’re not able to announce things. We don’t want to say anything crazy at this point because that would not help us,” explains the RNF team manager.
The complex MotoGP transfer carousel 2023
Signing riders for the 2023 MotoGP season is a complex puzzle, especially since Suzuki announced in May that they would depart at the end of 2022. Both current Suzuki riders – Joan Mir and Alex Rins – have found a new spot, although Mir is yet to discuss his upcoming move to Honda. Rins also joins the Honda camp. He is moving to the LCR team, which has already been officially announced.
Miguel Oliveira is one of those who have not signed a new contract for 2023 as of today. The Portuguese will leave KTM and was on the verge of a deal with Gresini-Ducati, which didn’t materialize. Instead of bringing Oliveira, the Gresini team have come to an agreement with Alex Marquez. The Spaniard makes way for Rins at LCR-Honda and joins Fabio Di Giannantonio at Gresini. There, in turn, Enea Bastianini says goodbye at the end of the 2022 season – either to Pramac-Ducati or to the Ducati factory team.
As for Oliveira, the RNF-Aprilia is an interesting option for Hin – especially now that the Aprilia RS-GP has been developed into one of the best bikes in the field. Another candidate for RNF-Aprilia is Raul Fernandez. He is keen to leave KTM, but the Austrian manufacturer wants to stick with his contract. Fernandez is not enthusiastic and is now even considering a change to the Superbike World Championship or a change back to the Moto2 class.
So there are still some puzzle pieces that need to find their place in the 2023 MotoGP transfer carousel…