Johann Zarco still studying his Honda: "We don't just have one problem"

Three weeks after the final event of the season, the rest granted to the drivers of MotoGP The postponement of the Qatar Grand Prix to the end of the season has been a huge boost for Johann Zarco. Struggling with his Honda since the start of the year, the rider from Cannes is still waiting for a breakthrough on the RC213v.

The period between the United States Grand Prix, held on March 29, and the Spanish Grand Prix, taking place this week at the Jerez-Ángel Nieto circuit, allowed him to take stock of his start to the season. But also to look for solutions.

Good feelings in Austin

“I’ve had time to reflect on what I did after my crash in Austin,” the Frenchman told the media present in Jerez, including AUTOhebdo. We put in some really good laps after the crash, and it was quite interesting. I rediscovered a kind of feeling I'd been searching for for months, and it came back. And now, I want to ride from FP1 onwards with the goal of finding that feeling again. That will be the step that will allow me to aim for the top 5 or get closer to the podium. As I said at the beginning of the year, the bike seems better and can go into the top 5, but clearly, I've struggled to get into the top 10. So it's strange.

However, it's difficult to know what will make the difference in Spain before getting on the motorcycle: “We need to understand what to do. Have I figured out how to reproduce it? We’ll see. The good thing is that our bike will be practically the same all year. Now the project is focused on next year’s regulations. We have a base we like. That will help the work during a race weekend. We don’t need to look for the base, we already have it. We need to bring that little extra feeling that will make the difference between struggling to get into the top 10 and aiming for the top 5. That’s what I believe.”

A major project for Zarco and Honda

Joan Mir, a rider for Honda's official MotoGP team, has complained about a lack of rear grip since the start of the season. This weakness has been reported by most of the Japanese manufacturer's riders in recent years. However, for Johann Zarco, this isn't the only reason for the brand's performance deficit.

“We still have this problem,” adds n°5 again. We have this problem with almost all motorcycles. It's really difficult to say that we only have one problem. That's why Joan focuses a lot on rear grip, and when he masters it, he does incredible things.

The Frenchman, however, does not wish to reduce his approach to this single flaw, as he is still struggling with braking and other aspects of riding the Honda: "It would be too easy to focus only on that. Or it would mean we're too stupid if we can't find it, even though we've been repeating the same problem for years. It would mean that engineers are stupid. They're not. So I think it's not that simple. We can't point to just one problem."

A potential breakthrough for Johann Zarco at the Jerez circuit would bode well for the rest of the season. The Andalusian track is far from being the Cannes native's favorite. He notably retired from the main race there between 2022 and 2024.

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