When the news was (rather harshly) announced in the middle of a practice session during the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix that Iker Lecuona would be replaced at the Tech3 KTM MotoGP team for 2022 by Raul Fernandez, it was met with a fair amount of disappointment.
Spanish youngster Lecuona had then just started to show some form after a difficult inauguration into the premier class.
That’s why, two seasons later, there’s been a positive reception to the now World Superbike racer being given a second shot at the premier class, albeit only a short one as he steps in to fill some big shoes as Marc Marquez’s replacement at Repsol Honda for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
A factory Honda World Superbike racer since leaving MotoGP, Lecuona’s the natural choice to replace the six-time MotoGP champion given that normal deputy Stefan Bradl was already at Jerez in his testing role for a wildcard.
And it gives Lecuona the chance to show that he’s still deserving of a seat on the top tier grid despite the way in which his previous experience ended.
Signed up as a MotoGP rider at only 19 years old and thrown into the deep end at Valencia in 2019, without the benefit of even sitting on the bike prior to that weekend let alone a comprehensive testing programme, there’s no disguising that his introduction was a difficult one.
That he even got that chance was something of a surprise given his, at that point, relative lack of experience not just in grand prix racing but on asphalt as a whole. Just five years earlier he’d made the switch from supermoto into first the Spanish Moto2 championship and then straight to grand prix racing’s second tier without touching Moto3.
But veteran MotoGP team boss Herve Poncharal saw potential in one of the youngest riders on the grid, and it wasn’t exactly the Frenchman’s first bet on young talent. It arguably paid off for him before their time together came to an end.
Lecuona ended his first MotoGP race (at his home track, no less) in the gravel trap, and that became something of a trend for him in his opening season, as he attempted to over-ride a KTM machine that was even more difficult and pernicious then than it is now.
But the fact four crashes in his first four races were followed by an impressive top-10 finish when he did eventually see the chequered flag in Austria, showed the other half of the narrative around his season. Yes he was inconsistent and too likely to try to over-ride the RC16, but he was also quick.
On top of that, of course, Lecuona came into the premier class for his first full season during the COVID-19 pandemic – and also missed the final three rounds of it after catching the virus. It meant that he went into his sophomore season with really only 12 MotoGP race weekends on his CV.
That was reflected in the opening part of 2021 as well, as his lack of experience continued to translate into more crashes – and prompted an unceremonious exit from the KTM project announced at the halfway point of the season.
Weirdly, though, it seems like his departure from the team was somewhat liberating for him. In the second half of his final year, Lecuona racked up decent results and, perhaps even more importantly, stayed on the bike a lot more.
Sixth at the Red Bull Ring only a week after being sacked and seventh at the next round at Silverstone meant that, in fact, Lecuona was on occasion even the top finisher for KTM.
And, with a sense that he had finally started to show his true potential even though his time in the class was already coming to an end, there was a definite sense of unfinished business when he was ejected from it.
It’s unlikely, of course, that he’s going to be able to rectify that too much in a single weekend on the Repsol Honda at Jerez, especially after just jumping off Honda’s WSB machine at Assen a few days ago.
But the fact that there’s paddock interest in putting him, still only 22 years old, back onto a MotoGP machine, is indicative of the untapped potential that many feel that Lecuona left with – and might well be the first step on a path back to the premier class for him in the future.
This potential has been backed up to a degree during his time on a superbike, too. He took a now relatively rare-for-Honda WSBK podium in only his second weekend with the team.
Much of his time since has been spent developing the Fireblade into a more competitive package.
However, while results might have been somewhat sparing, victory at the Suzuka 8 Hours in 2022 alongside Honda MotoGP testers Tetsuta Nagashima and Takumi Takahashi was a reminder of the level of talent that Lecuona still has.
