LCR’s Johann Zarco admits he ‘thought I might be sadder’ on the finish of his first MotoGP season on the Honda than he really was.
The one-time MotoGP race winner swapped the most effective bike on the grid within the Ducati for a two-year manufacturing facility contract with Honda, starting in 2024, to journey for LCR.
Learn extra: How Honda discovered its true MotoGP chief in 2024
Although it gained a race in 2023, Honda’s outcomes dropped off a cliff throughout the marketing campaign, whereas the bike’s poor type led to Marc Marquez departing on the finish of the season to hitch the Gresini Ducati squad.
Although 2024 was Honda’s third winless season within the final 5, Zarco emerged as its strongest rider and confirmed properly within the second half of the yr.
Usually a Q2 contender, Zarco additionally scored Honda’s greatest results of the yr with eighth in Thailand as he was in a position to extract essentially the most out of quite a few bike updates.
He ended the yr as Honda’s prime rider in seventeenth within the standings on 55 factors.
Reflecting on his first yr with HRC, Zarco admits 12 months prior he anticipated to be feeling worse about his season than he does.
“It’s extra constructive than what I anticipated, if I’ve to analyse this finish of the season,” Zarco mentioned final November in Barcelona.
“And in addition my feeling, I felt one yr in the past I might have been extra unhappy and I’m a lot happier than what I anticipated.
“So, that’s good. It got here after I started to do higher ends in Indonesia, after which after I might repeat these outcomes after which I might work on my using type.
“And this work was giving solutions on the monitor, so this gave me extra motivation that I’ve opened new doorways that I’m positive I can get very robust, discovering these new issues.”
Zarco stays with LCR for the 2025 season in a largely unchanged line-up for Honda, with its manufacturing facility staff roster of Joan Mir and Luca Marini additionally staying put.
Somkiat Chantra will step up from Moto2 to the second LCR seat alongside Zarco for his rookie season, as he replaces Takaaki Nakagami.
Nakagami has moved over to Honda’s take a look at staff alongside Aleix Espargaro.
