Honda star dismisses 2027 MotoGP rumours as ‘winter boredom’

Luca Marini says he is “constantly talking with Honda” about his MotoGP future amid reports of Fabio Quartararo signing for the team.

With almost all factory contracts up for renewal at the end of this year, the 2027 rider market has already kicked into a frenzy.

On 2 February, prior to the first pre-season test, Aprilia confirmed it had signed Marco Bezzecchi to a new two-year deal.

This followed reports last week in various corners of the media that 2021 world champion Fabio Quartararo had signed for Honda, while Jorge Martin will replace him at Yamaha, and Pedro Acosta will join Marc Marquez at Ducati.

Quartararo denied on Monday that any deal with Honda had been signed.

Honda may have just one seat left for 2027 already

If Quartararo does go to Honda, it will leave just one factory RC214V up for grabs, with HRC having already snared Johann Zarco and Diogo Moreira to multi-year deals at LCR.

Both Luca Marini and Joan Mir are out of contract at the end of this season, with both offering strong CVs to remain with Honda.

Mir scored two podiums last year and was regularly out-and-out quicker, though Marini was more consistent and has endeared himself through his analytical approach to bike development.

Asked, following Honda’s 2026 livery launch, by Crash.net if he’d had any conversations with HRC about next year, Marini dismissed current rider market speculation as ‘boredom’ by the media.

“Well, I think now everybody is speaking a lot on the media side, but also on the riders’ side,” he said.

“Every rider wants to be in the perfect position in 2027, which is not also easy to understand what is best, because everything is going to change.

“But I’m constantly talking with Honda, with all the Japanese. We have a fantastic relationship.

“Now, I think everyone has a lot of time to end with these things.

“The 2026 season has not even started. There is a lot of speculation at the moment, but I think because everyone was a bit bored at home and we wanted to start the fire a little bit.

“But now that we will have some technical topics after the test, maybe this will go away.”