The Oxley interview
Can MotoGP'S warrior monk save Honda?
Mat is a TT winner, endurance racer, author and MotoGP paddock insider
Johann Zarco joins Honda next year, having ridden MotoGP’s best motorcycle for the past four seasons. Could he be Honda’s most useful asset in its fightback from the most disastrous period of its racing history? Or will his second full-factory deal turn out to be another nightmare?
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 latest-spec Desmosedici GP24 to ride alongside Jorge Martin. Thus, no room for the Frenchman who has ridden Ducatis for the past four seasons, scoring many podiums but no wins. Rumour had it that Ducati would most likely demote him to World Superbikes. But life moves fast in the MotoGP paddock. Honda’s RC213V project is in meltdown, with Marc Marquez recently escaping 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 nonetheless 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 doesn’t need some young hotshot; it needs an old hand who’s 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. 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 Massimo Branchini and a few other Ducati brains, because that’s 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.
Zarco’s new deal won’t do any harm to his bank balance either. There’s an unwritten rule in racing (which doesn’t always apply) that the better the bike, the less you get paid to ride it; and the worse the bike you ride, the more you get paid to ride it. And Honda knows it must dig deep to get Zarco aboard its RC213V, which has hurt so many riders.
Zarco is interesting. Very different from most of the MotoGP grid. He’s older, for a start (a year younger than class veteran Aleix Espargaro), he’s very low ‐k
