LCR Honda officially announced on Tuesday afternoon that Johann Zarco will join its ranks for the 2024 MotoGP season on a two year deal.
Zarco had been rumoured in recent weeks to be looking at switching from his role as a factory Ducati rider with satellite squad Pramac to a factory Honda-contracted pilot with LCR, as Ducati looked to promote impressive VR46 sophomore racer Marco Bezzecchi to a current-specification Desmosedici following a strong start to 2023, the Italian having collected two wins thus far.
With Zarco yet to secure a premier class victory, it was he who would have been the odd-man-out should Bezzecchi take up the option of moving to Pramac next season – allowing Honda to swoop in with a lucrative offer to have the Frenchman join it in place of Alex Rins, who was announced as a 2024 factory Yamaha pilot at Silverstone earlier this month.
LCR team boss Lucio Ceccinello says his team is “very excited” to be welcoming two-time Moto2 world champion into its fold for next term, Zarco set to be instrumental in Honda’s quest to rediscover its old form and return to the forefront of MotoGP.
“We are very excited to welcome Johann to the LCR Honda Castrol team with all the respective details and signatures now in place,” said Ceccinello.
“It is a return to the team after we had some brief time together in 2019, where we could already see his potential and work ethic.
“There are still a lot of races and work to be done this season, but we are looking forward to the start of this new project in 2024.”
Zarco isn’t completely new to the LCR squad having completed three races with the outfit at the back end of 2019 as a replacement for an injured Takaaki Nakagami, the 19-time MotoGP rostrum finisher securing a best result of 13th in his first outing with the team in the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island.
He currently sits fifth overall in the 2023 rider’s standings having scored a total of four podium results so far, Zarco’s efforts alongside German GP victor Jorge Martin allowing Pramac to sit atop the team’s points standings at the mid-point of the season.
