Johann Zarco has a big decision to make about his MotoGP future and he’s declared he’ll make it by the end of Austrian Grand prix race day on Sunday.
Does he stay with his current Pramac Ducati team in 2024 and keep the best bike on the grid for one more season, but knowing that Ducati wants to move him into its World Superbike Championship line-up for 2025?
Or does he take the two-year (plus option for a third) deal on the table from Honda to head up its satellite team LCR, knowing it would provide more time in MotoGP, a chance to turn a legendary marque’s form around and a significant higher wage, but also that those would be two very tough years given the RC213V is far from a winning machine?
Zarco’s strongly denied reports on Saturday morning that he’d already taken Honda’s offer, but Ducati’s sporting director Paolo Ciabatti told The Race he expects Zarco ultimately will leave because he wants to prioritise staying in MotoGP for longer.
Whatever he decides will have substantial repercussions right across the whole of the MotoGP grid.
REGARDLESS OF ZARCO, BEZZECCHI’S NOT MOVING
Originally Zarco’s future was entwined with Marco Bezzecchi’s, with Ducati’s hope being that it could transfer Bezzecchi from VR46 to Pramac in Zarco’s place so current title contender Bezzecchi could be on a 2024-spec bike.
But Bezzecchi’s been adamant he wants to stay in the familiar environment of VR46. It hoped it might convince Ducati to build an extra 2024 bike for it, but Ducati’s held firm that it’s only doing four new-specs for the factory team and Pramac because its experiment of running five (the other for VR46’s Luca Marini) in 2022 didn’t go well.
During the Austria weekend it’s become increasingly clear that Bezzecchi’s going to get his wish and stay at VR46.
That doesn’t mean he’ll get a 2024 bike, but there might be things Ducati can do to still make his situation better.
Right now he’s got the standard issue year-old deal with all that it entails, but there’s absolutely more that Ducati can promise to him to help him be competitive when the new season kicks off.
Obviously he’ll have not just a fully updated 2023 end-of-season bike, but there’ll be potential for plenty of upgrades during the season as well – especially in the all-important aerodynamic category.
There’s extra staffing that can also definitely be thrown at him to make him even faster – Ducati has, after all, some very talented data engineers that can be assigned to Bezzecchi and VR46 to ensure that he’s as close to factory as you can be.
MORBIDELLI GOES WHERE ZARCO DOESN’T
There’s one major MotoGP star who is homeless right now for next season: Franco Morbidelli, who’s being replaced at Yamaha by the man whose LCR exit has created the whole Zarco dilemma: Alex Rins.
Morbidelli’s first choice was rejoining mentor Valentino Rossi at VR46, but that possibility has likely gone with Bezzecchi set to stay where he is.
Regardless, if Zarco makes the move to LCR Honda, it’s hard to imagine Ducati not immediately snapping up Morbidelli for somewhere in its roster.
A proven race winner in the premier class and even a title contender in 2020, he’s had a tough time of late at Yamaha but there’s a strong feeling in the paddock that a change of bike is what he needs to regain his form.
Ducati has already suggested that it would be delighted to have him, albeit at the time of those comments thinking he’d be lined up for a VR46 seat replacing Bezzecchi.
Getting a 2024-spec Ducati at Pramac would be the ultimate case of lucking out for Morbidelli given how bad his Yamaha form has been, but he could absolutely repay Ducati’s faith.
Should Zarco stay at Pramac, then you have to imagine that Morbidelli will be a contender to join LCR in his place, especially given that not only is he a former Honda MotoGP racer from all the way back in his first season with Marc VDS in 2018 but also that he comes with confirmed factory development credentials from his time at Yamaha.
WHAT ABOUT MARQUEZ TO PRAMAC?
Given there’s potentially a 2024 Ducati available and six-time world champion Marc Marquez seemed to be desperate for a way out of Honda, it’s unsurprising that people have wondered about a shock Marquez-to-Pramac move.
Rumours of this happening, though, seem to be nothing more than rather idle paddock speculation at this point.
Not only have Ducati management been unequivocal in insisting they have no interest in Marquez, especially for a satellite role, but it’s more and more clear that he’s completely locked into his current (and extremely financially lucrative) Repsol Honda until at least the end of next season.
HONDA’S FALLBACK OPTION
The only other option that Honda seems to be considering right now if it doesn’t get Zarco is current LCR stand-in Iker Lecuona, with its World Superbike star absolutely being groomed for a bigger role within the MotoGP project this season.
A series of replacement rides in both LCR and Repsol Honda colours helped him find his feet again in MotoGP, and hint that he might well be Honda’s prime candidate should Zarco turn it down.
SO WHO GOES TO GRESINI?
That leaves one free seat on the grid and, with Lecuona committed to Honda in one paddock or another, it means that where Zarco and subsequently Morbidelli ends up could decide the fate of current Moto2 racer Jake Dixon.
Should Zarco go to LCR and Morbidelli take his Pramac seat, it means that a space will be created at Gresini Ducati thanks to Fabio Di Giannantonio’s all-but-certain MotoGP departure.
This is believed to be Morbidelli’s back-up option now should his other plans fall through.
But there will be plenty of British fans hoping that Zarco does make the Honda switch because it seems that Dixon is now second in line behind Morbidelli on Gresini’s list.
Dixon’s picked the right time to start going fast and carrying the backing of series promoter Dorna too given its interest in , he’s went from an outside bet to even money in recent weeks – and will likely have an uncomfortable few days of waiting ahead of him as we waits upon others to decide his fate.
