Johann Zarco outlines importance of Australia MotoGP round to Honda

LCR’s Johann Zarco believes a strong showing at the 2024 MotoGP Australian Grand Prix will act as confirmation of the improvements Honda made to its bike at Misano.

The Frenchman returns to the scene of his maiden MotoGP victory, when Zarco passed former Pramac team-mate Jorge Martin on the last lap of the 2023 Australian GP to finally break his duck.

While a repeat is not expected owing to the form of the Honda, Zarco comes to Australia brimming with confidence from what he has seen from the RC213V in recent rounds following updates to the package at the Misano test last month.

With the Phillip Island circuit, in theory, playing up to the strengths of the Honda much better than the previous Japanese GP at Motegi, Zarco believes a strong showing this weekend will confirm the bike’s true potential.

“Let’s see how we can perform this weekend,” he said on Thursday in the pre-event press conference.

“With these long corners, I hope we can have the chance to get closer to the others.

“Clearly, the last two GPs gave a good boost to me and the team. Even in Japan, where Friday didn’t start so well, and then the two races we had were interesting.

“And here, it’s seems it’s not a track where there are accelerations with wheelie problems.

“So, I hope we can then lose less time compared to the others, and if this theory is working then it means the step forward at Misano will be confirmed here.

“And this will be positive for Honda, knowing they understand things and we can keep going forward.”

In two of the last three rounds, Zarco has been able to get into Q2, while he achieved Honda's first top 10 grand prix finish of the year at the Indonesian round.

Honda’s steady upturn in form has also come as current Aprilia engineer Romano Albesiano was announced at the Japanese GP to be joining HRC as technical director for 2025.

Speaking on the various recent changes Honda has made, both to the bike and personnel-wise, Zarco said: “I’m confident.

“When I was saying at the beginning of the year that the top 10 was possible to reach and fighting in the top 10, then during the season I clearly said ‘Ok, we need to forget this kind of target’.

“And now we have the chance to target the top 10 again. This is a good motivation.

“They are doing some changes, and anyway, the Japanese has a way to work that is very impressive.

“So, clearly the work is not something we have to doubt.

“Then we need to understand what direction to go, and it seems like the last steps we did was a breath that ‘it might work’.”