Pramac Ducati racer Johann Zarco has denied Saturday morning’s reports that his move to LCR Honda for 2024 was a done deal – and blamed his rather lacklustre performance during Austrian Grand Prix qualifying on the “blah blah” surrounding him going into the session.
But it won’t be long before his future is clear, as he has given himself a deadline of tomorrow to make the final call.
It was reported by French broadcaster Canal Plus ahead of qualifying on Saturday morning that Zarco had chosen to take the lucrative deal offered to him by Honda to join satellite squad LCR in place of Alex Rins, with the set mission of bringing his experience to helping the struggling Japanese factory turn around its RC213V machine.
However, that news was then rolled back by a number of those who had been quick to report it initially – and was categorically denied by Zarco after he was taken out of this afternoon’s sprint race in the accident triggered by his Pramac team-mate Jorge Martin.
Zarco openly up very honestly about the two options sitting before him – and admitted that his plan is to have a decision made within the next 24 hours so that he can enjoy a few quiet days at home before the next round of the championship at Barcelona instead of stressing about his future.
Asked by The Race about his decision, Zarco replied “I think I will have it tomorrow, because I don’t want to make this decision at home. I want to feel free next week” and then described the choice he faces.
“The proposals are quite clear,” he said.
“It’s clear that Honda is offering a good project in MotoGP.
“I would be glad to, with my consistency and my experience, give good information and work well to develop the bike. At least for two years because I have also an option for a third year. So this is always a good project in MotoGP.
“With Ducati, it’s one year and then they already see me in Superbikes for the future. That could be an idea.
“But as long as I can perform in MotoGP, it’s tough to think to go to Superbikes.
“But on the other hand, in Superbike and MotoGP, [Ducati] they have the winning bike at the moment.”
That tallies exactly with what Ducati sporting director Paolo Ciabatti exclusively told The Race earlier in the day, confirming both his own offer to Zarco and what he believed the Honda deal to consist of.
“We told Johann that the best that Ducati could offer was one more year in MotoGP and a future in [World] Superbikes,” said Ciabatti, who has spoken at length in the past of his desire to see Zarco on board a Ducati in the production racing class, as he sees him as an obvious successor to Ducati’s currently dominant WSBK champion Alvaro Bautista.
“He said that his target is to stay in MotoGP. As far as we know, he has a two-year offer from Honda for LCR, to stay in MotoGP, so it’s up to him to decide.
“I guess if his target is to stay here, and Ducati is offering only one year, then I guess that that [staying in MotoGP for longer with Honda] will probably be the direction.
But this is where we stand at the moment.”
WHAT WE THINK ZARCO SHOULD DO
What happens next for Zarco is a tough call to make, and one that realistically only he knows the answer to because it comes down to not just financial reward and ego but also to motivation.
There are two clear options in front of him: continue at Ducati and continue racking up podiums and maybe even a win or two, or make the Honda move and prove that he’s now capable of doing what he couldn’t do at KTM in 2019 and help a struggling factory turn its bike around using his talent and experience.
It’s not a secret that he wants to be a MotoGP race winner – and he was happy to joke with The Race on Saturday afternoon about how everything would have been a little easier to decide with a sprint race victory.
But, there’s still plenty of this season left, and plenty of opportunity for victories still to come, something else he was also quick to acknowledge.
With that in mind, and considering that any World Superbike aspirations he might have following his MotoGP career will probably remain achievable for a few years yet (including even with Ducati, according to Ciabatti), then there’s certainly a greater potential to create a MotoGP legacy at Honda than there will be in his current role as essentially Ducati’s fifth-preference racer in the premier class.
Zarco also admitted that the pressure put on him by the incorrect breaking news on Saturday morning affected his day and contributed to him ending up 10th on the grid.
“I missed the qualifying and I was not feeling pretty good on the bike,” he admitted.
“There has been an announcement this morning that was too early because I finally have the proposal in my hands, but I’ve not yet decided. So that’s why all the blah, blah disturbed me a bit this morning.
“For the race, I could reset the mind well and I was happy that the start was good.
“I was really well focused, I just missed a bit of luck because I touched [Miguel] Oliveira a bit but then there were not too many people around and I got hit, but I was already on the floor.
“So I didn’t get injured and I tried to restart the bike, I could go and in case of a red flag, maybe I could have another restart and also it was good to test the bike with a few changes because this morning I could not feel good.”
