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Ducati’s offer of an annual renewal, with the possibility of landing in the Superbike in 2025, wasn’t enough to convince Johann Zarco to remain. So he preferred to embrace a new challenge with the LCR team.
The 33-year-old rider was offered a long-term project with Honda, but he based his decision on the term of the contract rather than on the performance of the two constructors. “I had the opportunity to continue with Ducati another year, but I wasn’t sure I’d remain in the Pramac team. Honda, on the other hand, has offered me a two-year contract, and there’s also a project for the future,” Zarco affirmed at the Red Bull Ring, justifying his decision.
Johann seems to have preferred Honda’s stability to Ducati’s competitiveness, which certainly doesn’t concern the technical profile, given that the Japanese constructor left the Red Bull Ring with only 4 points. It was all the result of the 12th place won on Sunday by Marc Marquez, during the second Grand Prix of the season, as he finished in the top 15 of the Repsol team.
Hodgson’s and Guintoli’s perplexities
This was also why TNT Sports commentators Neil Hodgson and Silvain Guintoli didn’t hide their concerns in Austria about Zarco’s transfer, calling his decision “strange”.
“I received an offer to stay with Ducati next season, or I could instead get on that Honda. Let me see the money!” the 2003 Superbike World Champion said, according to statements reported by Crash.net. “You can’t blame him. He’s almost at the end of his career,” Hodgson continued. “Not only will he have a Honda, he won’t be on a factory team. He’ll be on the LCR with a long-term contract. It’s a bad move. We’ll see how it goes, but I don’t have a good feeling.”
Guintoli echoed these words, as he remembered the unfortunate precedent of his fellow countryman with the Mattighofen constructor. “It’s weird because of what he did with KTM. He had a very decent factory contract and lost it after a few races, because he couldn’t stand the fact that he wasn’t competitive,” he observed. “At that point, the project was still developing. He left the money and was practically saved by Ducati. It’s shocking, in that sense.”
