Johann Zarco’s satellite status made him ‘suffer’ at one stage of MotoGP 2025

LCR’s Johann Zarco admits he “suffered” as a result of his satellite status at one stage during the 2025 MotoGP season due to having only one of Honda’s updated bikes.

The veteran French rider was Honda’s leading light during a miserable 2024 campaign, and maintained that for much of the first half of last season.

He won a wet French Grand Prix, ending a two-year drought for Honda, before finishing second at the dry British Grand Prix a few weeks later.

All of this earned Johann Zarco a new two-year Honda deal to remain with LCR to the end of 2027, with the Frenchman to maintain full support from HRC.

Zarco’s results dropped off in the second half of the season, as his factory Honda team counterparts began to enjoy greater success.

This was down to Joan Mir and Luca Marini getting Honda’s latest updates first, while for a time Zarco only had them on one of his bike.

Speaking at the end of the season, he admits this made it harder for him to adjust to the upgrades.

“Given their position, they [the factory team riders] have a different responsibility, because they have to do the testing, everything, and we saw during the year that, when we are a bit limited by parts, I was the one who had to wait a bit,” he said.

“I had this imbalance, with one bike that [the upgrades] while the other didn’t, and I think I suffered during some races in that situation.

“I’m fine with that, and I think we still have a lot of work to do.

“We believe we can make progress with the team, so it’s a positive way of looking at it.

“For next year, the bike has progressed a lot.”

Despite his difficult second half to the season, Zarco still ended 2025 as Honda’s leading rider in 12th in the standings.

From next season, Honda will operate in a higher concession ranking, which means it will no longer be able to test with its race riders privately in-season and be bound by an engine development freeze.

For Zarco, however, he doesn’t anticipate this changing his life very much.

“My programme will be the same because I haven’t had any extra testing.

“I think I’ve had two [test] tyres for the whole year. So, for me, it doesn’t change [anything].”