LCR Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami says he’s “99.9 percent” assured of remaining with the team in MotoGP this year.
It is a rather unsurprising development at this point, but one that had looked much more unlikely at the turn of the year, when Nakagami looked to be heading into his final full season in the premier class.
The 31-year-old Nakagami, who had debuted in MotoGP in 2018, is yet to score a podium in 93 grand prix starts in the premier class, but his time in the series has not been without its highlights – including a pole at Aragon in 2020, a season in which he was the sole Honda rider to finish in the top 10 in the standings.
Nakagami also happens to be the only Honda rider to have taken part in every weekend this season, with the rest of its line-ups ravaged by injuries sustained in crashes as its riders have struggled to tame the unruly 2023 version of the Honda RC213V.
Amid the injury travails of Marc Marquez, Joan Mir and Alex Rins, Nakagami has been steady in terms of bringing the bike to the chequered flag – and though there hasn’t been much of a sign of explosive pace (certainly not anywhere near what team-mate Rins showed when he stunned MotoGP to win at the Circuit of the Americas), he has been scoring consistently enough to help put LCR well clear of the Repsol-backed factory team, with a slightly surreal 60-point gap in the standings between the two entities.
In the lead-up to the Catalan Grand Prix in Barcelona, Nakagami confirmed to media that he was on the verge of getting an extension.
“I had some meetings with HRC, in the past – Assen before the summer break, and also the last race in Austria. With [HRC director Tetsuhiro] Kuwata-san, and, yes, about my future, for the near future, it is almost fixed. 99.9 percent I will stay in the same team.
“Yes, this is what I can say now. Almost fixed.
“Of course for myself it’s really pleasing, to stay with the same team, LCR Honda Idemitsu, because I like this team, all the mechanics, [feel] fully supported in my team. Of course I’m really happy, and, yes, also I want to help for the development of the bike, because still we have lost the way, it is a difficult situation.
“We will try to improve the situation – as soon as possible, but I hope 2024, we try to make a big step and try to be competitive, this is the target.”
Nakagami is therefore set to partner Johann Zarco, who is arriving on a two-year contract as the replacement for the Yamaha-recruited Rins.
The backing of Nakagami’s LCR seat, which he has occupied since his debut, by Japanese petroleum company Idemitsu, has been crucial to his career – but last year he seemed on track to be replaced by another Japanese option in rising star Ai Ogura.
Honda protege Ogura, nine years Nakagami’s junior, was very close to winning last year’s Moto2 title but for a crash in the penultimate round.
But he was already known to be staying in Moto2 at that point, thought to be in no particular rush to plunge into the premier class (on what was already at that point a famously incalcitrant Honda).
Ogura then suffered a major wrist injury during the pre-season, one that effectively wrecked his hopes of another Moto2 title bid before the season had begun. He was in quiet form once he’d returned – but has picked it up as of late with two podiums in the last three races.
In the meantime, rumours circulated that Ogura was potentially looking to link up with KTM partner team Ajo in Moto2, which logically may have entailed a full-on split with Honda.
This hasn’t happened – German-language publication Speedweek has now reported Ajo’s prized rides will go to its Moto3 rider Deniz Oncu and Valentino Rossi protege Celestino Vietti in 2024.
With the Honda MotoGP route now set to be closed off by Nakagami’s renewal, it is though Ogura will still remain part of its stable – albeit recent developments suggest that, rather than continue with the Idemitsu-backed Honda Team Asia in the intermediate class, Ogura may be linking up with Gresini’s Moto2 arm.
Given he’s recovered his form, you’d think Honda could’ve easily justified promoting Ogura now.
The fact it hasn’t suggests that Honda, and maybe Ogura himself, see limited value in doing so while the RC213V is in the state that it’s in – and that it’d rather go for an all-hands-on-deck approach, accruing all the rider experience it can get hold of.
And with riders hardly lining up to go to Honda, it could certainly do a lot worse than Zarco, with his multi-factory experience, and Nakagami, with his years and years of RC213V knowledge, as a satellite team roster.
