Can MotoGP's Warrior Monk Save Honda?

Johann Zarco joins Honda next year, after having ridden MotoGP's best motorcycle for the last four seasons, so he could be Honda's most useful asset in their fightback from the most disastrous period of their racing history. Or will the second full-factory deal turn out to be another nightmare?

- Mat Oxley

HALFWAY THROUGH THIS season it seemed like Johann Zarco's MotoGP career was over. The paddock rumour machine had VR46 rider Marco Bezzecchi gaining promotion to Pramac Ducati for 2024, so he could have a H latest-spec Desmosedici GP24 to ride alongside Jorge Martin. Thus, no room for the Frenchman who has ridden Ducatis for the last four seasons, scoring many podiums but no wins.

It was most likely that Ducati would demote Zarco to World Superbike, said the rumour machine.

But life moves fast in the MotoGP paddock. Honda's RC213V project is in meltdown, with Marc Márquez wanting to escape his 2024 contract and Alex Rins escaping his during August, quitting LCR Honda to ride a factory Yamaha next year, alongside Fabio Quartararo, so LCR owner Lucio Cecchinello contacted Zarco: do you want to ride an RC213V next year?

Not an offer many top MotoGP riders would greet with glee right now, because the RC213V has a deservedly nasty reputation, but an offer none the less to remain in the premier class of motorcycle racing.

Zarco has to be the perfect man for Honda. When a manufacturer is in a deep hole with its machinery, it does not need some young hotshot; it needs an old hand who has been around for years and knows what a MotoGP bike needs.

Even better, Zarco has been riding MotoGP's best motorcycle since 2020, so he can tell engineers exactly how the Desmosedici does what it does. Therefore, he could be Honda's most useful asset in its fightback.

And if HRC has any sense, it will also hire Zarco's Crew Chief Daniel Romagnoli and a few other Ducati brains, because that is how you make progress now. Look at KTM: the Austrian manufacturer has dramatically improved its RC16 by employing a bunch of Ducati engineers who know how to win in MotoGP.