Wilco Zeelenberg to Take FIAT Yamaha Role in 2010?

When Daniele Romagnoli left the FIAT Yamaha Team at the end of last year, it wasn't only the Italian squad that lost a valuable member of their management team, but also the Spanish rider Jorge Lorenzo. The two-time 250cc champion used to compete under his guidance from early 2008, and his leaving Yamaha left the Spaniard defenseless prior to the 2010 season.

During his time at Yamaha, Romagnoli witnessed no less than 20 victories from both Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. Yet he decided to leave the Italian outfit because of some presumed disagreements with Lorenzo's crew chief Ramon Forcada, as reported by German magazine Speedweek.

However, according to some recent reports from Motorcyclenews.com, it seems Romagnoli might be replaced by a Yamaha official just as competent. We're talking about Wilco Zeelenberg, none other than the boss of Cal Crutchlow’s 2009 World Supersport championship-winning squad.

Unlike Romagnoli, Zeelenberg lost his position at Yamaha's works team in the World Supersport Championship because of the Japanese manufacturer closing their operations in the aforementioned series. The reason was, as expected, the growing economic crisis, which led to Yamaha cutting down on their motorsport programmes worldwide.

With Romagnoli now Raffaele de Rosa's crew chief in the Tech 3 Moto2 squad, Zeelenberg's appointment at FIAT Yamaha Team seems inevitable. The news is yet to be made official by the Italian team, but some kind of announcement is expected to be made in the next few weeks.

Although Crutchlow secured the world title in the WSS series, Yamaha only came second in the constructors' classification, being beaten to the finish line by rivals Honda. Only 13 points separated the two manufacturers overall (297 – Honda, as compared to 284 – Yamaha).