Honda’s MotoGP effort is facing a looming decision on the future direction of its rider line-up.
It's weighing up whether or not to renew the expiring contracts of Luca Marini and Johann Zarco, even amid rumours of interest in stealing Pedro Acosta away from the struggling KTM.
This would have been almost unimaginable as recently as a year ago, given the state of the Honda RC213V - and it's testament to the work done by its engineering team over the winter to turn things around that Acosta’s name is even in the mix.
With KTM very much in the doldrums (despite Maverick Vinales' formbook-breaking Qatar GP ride) and Acosta, a rider hotly tipped as MotoGP’s next big champion, clearly amenable to offers from elsewhere despite still having a year left on his deal, Honda seems to be the only realistic opportunity.
There have been some noises from the VR46 camp suggesting that it may be interested in signing him up, presumably at the expense of the currently in-form Franco Morbidelli given Fabio Di Giannantonio’s two-year Ducati contract.
But, even if Valentino Rossi’s team had room for Acosta, it’s likely still only Honda who has the financial clout to find the millions needed to buy him out of his current contract a year early.
Should it somehow manage to sign him, Acosta would join in place of Luca Marini, whose current two-year deal with the factory team (signed at the eleventh hour and out of sync with most of the grid to replace Marc Marquez) expires at the conclusion of the 2025 season.
However, it’s believed that the team is very keen to retain Marini’s development nous in a slightly different role, with a step down to satellite squad LCR instead of a departure from the factory altogether believed to be the desired route.
Marini has established himself as a key boon to the programme’s recovery of late, balancing out the riding style of team-mate Joan Mir well and helping to build a bike that’s seemingly starting to work again, including for Marini, whose results have been gradually getting better and better in the past few months.
Well-liked by team principal Alberto Puig, who has been quick to praise the Italian’s contribution to the team, that development skill will become even more important in the next 18 months as Honda prepares for what is likely to be the RC214V when MotoGP’s new rules arrive in 2027.
However, there’s one issue with the plan to retain Marini’s services at LCR: the fact that LCR's current racer Zarco is by far the best-performing Honda representative on the current grid, something he underlined as emphatically as ever at the Qatar GP with a very impressive fourth-place finish.
Now sitting a remarkable sixth in the championship standings and so far having scored more points than all three other Hondas combined, it means that in theory, it would be very difficult indeed to justify his departure from the factory.
“It’s pretty important,” Zarco said when The Race asked about his result after Sunday’s race. “I know I’m doing good things with Honda, and I want to continue with them. That would be the best way.
“It’s always good to confirm this, to be the first Honda rider, but most of all now to get close to the top guys.
“This is perfect. It’s always the right time [for a result like this], but to build it from the first race to now with only one mistake in Austin, it’s positive.”
Zarco has been open all season about his desires to very much remain a part of the team in the longer term, too, even going as far as to suggest that a two-year deal at LCR would be a better offer than a single-year contract in factory colours (and with the associated wage hike).
One thing that will, of course, work against him regarding that is his age, though. Zarco is the oldest racer on the grid at 34 years old and would be 37 by the time a fresh two-year deal would expire.
But it doesn’t seem that his advancing years (at least relative to 20-year-old Acosta) have taken away much of the Frenchman’s competitive focus given his Lusail result in particular.
