Lecuona on his future: “MotoGP is the top, I’ve always said this”

With his struggles in WorldSBK showing no signs of stopping, Iker Lecuona has admitted that MotoGP remains ‘the top’ level of racing.

Robert Jones

28 Jul 2023

Iker Lecuona, Team HRC WorldSBK Donington Park 2023

Lecuona is set to make his third MotoGP appearance of the year at Silverstone next week, however, the Honda rider will first be in action during this weekend’s Czech WorldSBK round.

13th in the standings, the opening seven rounds of 2023 have been a huge disappointment for Lecuona and Honda.

A big step was expected following a promising rookie season, but the Spaniard has been held back by the struggles at Honda.

With his future yet to be sorted, Lecuona provided an update to WorldSBK.com: "This year, we’ve struggled a lot. We’ve started the weekends with a lot of problems on the bike, we always need to change the base.

"We can’t find the base to use at every track. We need to work a lot more than the other riders. This tells us something on the bike is not correct.

"I still don’t know about my future. I can’t say until the moment we have everything closed but, from my side, I hope this weekend I’ll know a little bit more.

"Right now, honestly, I don’t know. I’ll know this weekend, but I can’t say! It depends on the project.

"Next week, I have a chance to go again but with LCR this time. MotoGP is the top, I’ve always said this."

While Lecuona could be on the move next season, Michael Van Der Mark remains calm about his contract situation and expects to still be a factory BMW rider in 2024.

Making his return to action for the first time since Assen, Van Der Mark said: "Finally, I’m back on the grid! I’m really excited! I wanted to come back earlier but we had to be smart and have a little bit of patience.

"I wanted to do a race before the summer break; I don’t think we have any expectation. We just want to do this race and get back up to speed.

"Missing four rounds is tough as you’ll be missing some sharpness. I need to stay calm, enjoy riding the bike and go step by step.

"In the summer break, we have a test and we’ll be ready for Magny-Cours. I’ve still got nothing to worry about with my future!"