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Marc Marquez’s decision to leave Honda and ride Team Gresini’s Ducati certainly caused some backlash: first and foremost, that of leaving a bike available on the official HRC team. In the past, there would’ve been a long line of riders ready to occupy the spot, but the situation is now completely different. There aren’t many riders available that are capable of riding a MotoGP. In fact, the list can be reduced to two: Fabio Di Giannantonio (whose manager has already had some contact with Alberto Puig) and Iker Lecuona, Honda rider in the SBK who’s been used several times as a replacement for injured riders this season.
Regardless of where the choice will fall, neither the Italian rider nor the Spanish rider have the experience that's required for the premier HRC team, which usually (with very rare exceptions) has always had riders with at least one title under their belt.
The solution would be in house, because Honda has signed with Johann Zarco, who won two World Championships. Too bad that his future is with LCR, and Lucio Cecchinello has no intention of letting him go. “Zarco has signed with HRC and LCR and will race with us. It’s a closed case for me,” he told Speedweek.
If the Japanese are paying, they could do whatever they want, theoretically. A bit like Ducati, which last year decided to promote Bastianini and Martin to the official team without Pramac being able to have a say in it, or more recently KTM, which excluded Pol Espargarò from the GasGas team, leaving no room even for a statement from the Tech3 team in the official press release.
But Honda isn’t in a position to make Cecchinello angry and, in this case, it has to do with the teams market, not the riders market. In 2025, both KTM and Yamaha would like to increase the number of their bikes on the track. This will mean taking a team from another constructor, and they’re spoilt for choice. Tech3 is, in fact, under the aegis of KTM, as if it were a second official team, Gresini has just renewed a contract with Ducati until 2026, and Pramac has a very long relationship with them (since 2005).
So which satellite teams are left? Valentino Rossi’s VR46, which Yamaha is targeting, and LCR, since their contract with Honda expires at the end of 2024. KTM knows this well and had already probed the possibilities of bringing on Cecchinello this summer (as Lucio had confirmed).
Honda, therefore, can’t make the Italian manager angry, because he could threaten to leave. Without taking anything away from Di Giannantonio and Lecuona, Zarco is a rider who can guarantee better results, those that a satellite team needs in order to procure sponsors and have visibility. Afer all, it goes without saying that an official team always takes precedence, and this will make the decision even more difficult.
But Honda needs a second team right now, since it has already lost Marquez, and their bikes aren’t very appealing to any new client. The risk is that they’ll end up in the same situation as Yamaha, with only two bikes on the track.
The problems aren’t over yet in Tokyo.
