Zarco: Pramac ‘good for Yamaha’ | Marquez, Bagnaia ‘out of reach’ in 2025
‘I think Marc and Pecco for next year, in the top team, will be almost impossible to reach and they will fly all the year’
Past and present Pramac riders, Johann Zarco and Jorge Martin, feel the team’s switch to Yamaha machinery will be a loss to Ducati in MotoGP next season.
Zarco spent three seasons at Pramac, culminating in a long-awaited debut MotoGP victory at Phillip Island last year, before switching to LCR Honda this season.
The Frenchman is happy to see that 2025 grid more ‘balanced’ and thinks the battle for third to tenth places will change.
But he doesn’t expect anyone to challenge Ducati’s 2025 factory line-up of current champion Francesco Bagnaia and new signing Marc Marquez.
“It will be good for the Yamaha project. They need more bikes to develop and get more information,” Zarco said.
“It's good to get more Japanese bikes in the championship, because now the European bikes, above all the Ducatis, get too much advantage.
“So there will be a little bit better balance and I hope that the Japanese [factories] will reduce the gap with Ducati.
“I think Marc and Pecco for next year, in the top team, will be almost impossible to reach and they will fly all the year.
“But at least from the third position to the tenth position, there will be some changes, and that will be good.
“And I think also, Yamaha doing improvements and getting more bikes on the grid will push Honda to also make the changes and to push themselves to find solutions.”
Martin, who made history for Pramac as its first MotoGP winner in his rookie 2021 campaign, finished title runner-up last year and, with Zarco, gave Pramac a memorable victory in the team’s championship.
Overlooked for the 2025 factory ride, Martin is switching to Aprilia next season.
“Well, I knew 99% already in Mugello [that Pramac would join Yamaha]. Big news I think,” he said.
“What can I say? I think all the information that Pramac is providing to the factory is super important and [Ducati] will 100% miss it next season.
“And Yamaha will be really helped by Pramac, to have more bikes on the track and to develop their bike.”
Pramac is yet to name any of its 2025 riders. Fabio di Giannantonio was hotly linked but is set to remain at VR46, leaving the likes of Miguel Oliveira and Jack Miller plus Moto2 stars Sergio Garcia and Alonso Lopez as rumoured candidates for the factory-spec M1s.
VR46 is expected to get at least one of the factory GP25 bikes that would have been allocated to Pramac next season.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
