Johann Zarco reveals his Honda MotoGP testing request

Johann Zarco says he told Honda engineers that he “didn’t want to know too much” about what he was testing during the 2025 MotoGP pre-season as to not get “lost”.

Honda’s updated 2025 package proved to be a visible step forward from its predecessor during winter testing in February at Sepang and Buriram.

Two Honda riders - including Zarco - breached the top eight at the end of the Sepang test on the combined times, while factory team rider Joan Mir was sixth overall in Thailand.

Honda’s race simulation running at the Buriram test also proved to be encouraging.

While putting in a busy programme of trying new parts, LCR’s Zarco says he was keen to avoid knowing exactly what he was doing in order to keep his feedback as accurate as possible.

“The engineer can answer better than me, because I was really focused on my riding and my feeling and the answer I can give to the engineers,” he said when asked about all of the small things he tried during the Thailand test.

“I didn’t want to know too much what we put on the bike because if I started to know all what we were trying then I would get lost.

“We were trying many things, so it was well organised and I let the engineers organise it and I tried to behave as well as possible on the bike to give clear information because we always need to take into consideration that what the rider does on the bike can be different from one run to another run.

“With the small things I think we got a better bike to at least perform better on the time attack and improve the lap time. That’s already a step.”

Johann Zarco on Honda progress

He added: “I’m happy that all what Honda planned in December and January, we could test everything.

“From this I guess they will work to find better the next evolution.

“We didn’t have a big breath by trying something and saying ‘yes, it’s this without any doubts’.

“We had many times to reconfirm what we were testing to be sure and take the right decision to start the season. So, I think now the image is clear for us.”

The 2024 Thai GP proved to be Honda’s best weekend of the year, with Zarco riding to an eighth-place finish in the wet grand prix having qualified 12th.

Though he feels the RC213V’s race pace needs to be improved, Zarco believes the fact the bike has made a step forward in time attack trim already puts him in a position to better that result at the opening round of the 2025 campaign at Buriram.

“Clearly, better control of the bike and better knowledge of it and I think I can perform when it’s going to be necessary,” he said.

“On the race pace is maybe where can struggle and I will see how to manage it for the race weekend.

“But now I see I have better opportunities to go straight to Q2 and even improve the qualifying compared to last year.

“And that will be the first opportunity to also improve the race result. Here is a particular track, also to come and have this different rear tyre, to have different behaviour from the bike and try to understand the things.”