Marc Marquez\u2019s Honda split, 2024 rider market, silly season, contract rumours, Gresini Ducati\u060c<\/p>\n
Marc M\u00e1rquez has made his decision to leave Honda official for the Ducati Gresini factory team. Now the cleaning begins.<\/p>\n
In many ways, M\u00e1rquez’s change is the opposite of a blockbuster move. He’s leaving MotoGP’s<\/a> most successful manufacturer for a satellite minnow, and to get there he’s taking a mega pay cut of up to 98.5 percent.<\/p>\n But the reality of the situation, with Honda having completely lost its way and Marquez running out of time to maximize his title potential, made him the obvious choice. On a Gresini he will have the chance to win<\/a> more races and perhaps the title, and he will be the biggest fish in the drivers’ market in 2025.<\/p>\n Watch all the 2023 MotoGP World Championship practices, qualifying and races live and ad-free during the races on Kayo. Sign up now and start<\/a> streaming instantly ><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n The other side of the coin is more complicated.<\/p>\n An opening at the Honda factory team should always be a big deal. Still, the Japanese brand will have to convince a potential rider that the bike rejected by one of the all-time greats will do just fine for him \u2013 that the project in which M\u00e1rquez has lost confidence is worth it.<\/p>\n The task is made more complicated by the fact that the equestrian market is almost entirely sedentary. The factory headquarters is the last to be won, with the other 21 already under contract for 2024.<\/p>\n Honda still has a certain prestige of course. Despite the deep, dark hole he finds himself in, there remains this lingering faith that he can’t be far from turning things around. It certainly doesn’t lack the resources to compete with Ducati.<\/p>\n He also has money, especially now that M\u00e1rquez’s allowance is no longer planned.<\/p>\n Promise and payment: are they enough to convince a passenger to break a contract and make a change?<\/p>\n With five rounds remaining, starting with this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix<\/a>, expect negotiations to accelerate for the final piece of the 2024 puzzle.<\/p>\n M\u00e1rquez falls in the first lap of the Sprint! | 00:29<\/p>\n THE APPARENTLY OBVIOUS CHOICE: JOHANN ZARCO<\/b><\/p>\n Johann Zarco has signed a two-year deal backed by Honda to race for satellite team LCR, replacing \u00c1lex Rins from next season. During discussions about M\u00e1rquez’s future, the assumption was that the Frenchman would occupy the factory seat through a simple promotion.<\/p>\n On paper this should be simple and the logic is clear.<\/p>\n Zarco has become an important development rider for Ducati over the past four years. At Pramac, the Ducati team’s first satellite team, he played a key role in testing and experimentation for the factory team, contributing to Bologna’s current dominance.<\/p>\n He’s exactly the kind of driver Honda could use.<\/p>\n But there are also obvious complications.<\/p>\n This project met with protests from the boss of the LCR, Lucio Cecchinello.<\/p>\n \u201cI am someone who respects contracts and I expect Honda to do the same,\u201d he told Italian channel Sky Sport this weekend.<\/p>\n Cecchinello has reason to be stubborn. It saw Rins leave the team after just one season due to difficulties adapting to the Honda bike, despite a rare victory at the United<\/a> States Grand Prix earlier this year.<\/p>\n Zarco was a solid replacement who could play and provide sponsorship to the satellite team. Losing him this late in the jumper market would be a big blow.<\/p>\n Cecchinello also has a potentially powerful card to play in the negotiations after confirming that KTM had approached him in an attempt to convert LCR into an Austrian satellite. With Honda in such dire straits, the threat of losing its only customer to a driver unlikely to win you a title would certainly revise the cost-benefit analysis.<\/p>\n So, if it’s not the simple Zarco route, then who?<\/p>\n