Johann Zarco disappointed after his French Grand Prix: "I really thought I could be competitive"

The weekend had started so well. With the fastest time on Friday, Johann Zarco seemed to have finally found the key to consistent performance on his Honda before everything gradually fell apart. A small crash on Saturday morning changed everything. “It’s very interesting to experience a weekend like this, because I started with a good feeling and I really thought I could be competitive all weekend. I wasn’t. It’s crazy when you lose a little bit of confidence on corner entries, certainly due to the crash on Saturday morning, even if it was a very small one. That little bit of lost commitment on the entries makes the whole circuit difficult, instead of a circuit where I can enjoy good riding.”

The choice of soft tires for the Grand Prix also played a role. “My engineer and I wanted to try this soft tire because it had given me a lot of advantage on Friday. But Michelin is very sensitive to tire temperatures and very sensitive if it's a bit colder. We saw that those who had the hard tire almost all crashed. So, either way, if it's too hot, the soft tire could have cost me a bit of ground on the Sprint.”

Furthermore, the clash with Raúl Fernández worsened the situation: "It's true that I lost a lot of places during Fernández's attack. I can't complain, he's trying to overtake, he's trying to hold his position. It was tight there, even he moved aside a bit and I lost, I don't remember, four or five places."

The management of the weekend in question

Beyond pure performance, Johann Zarco points to a more insidious factor: the fatigue accumulated throughout a home weekend, where the demands of partners and the public encroach on recovery time. “The difficult thing is that we can’t take the time to enjoy all this enthusiasm or try to give more to the public, because we have a very tight schedule. It takes so much energy. We sacrifice recovery time, time for massages or treatments for our muscles and forearms. And on Sundays, it shows. I’ll make sure to manage things differently next year, because I’m not 22 anymore.” A rare admission about the behind-the-scenes of a home Grand Prix, where media and commercial pressure can weigh as heavily as the track itself.

Despite this disappointment, the Honda LCR rider chose to focus on the positives. Friday's experience proved that the bike can be competitive in his hands, and that his understanding of the machine is improving. "The most positive thing is a bit like in Austin at the beginning of the year: performing well confirms that the bike can be good, confirms that I can understand how to use it. Now I have to find out how to repeat it. And that's my goal." The Circuit de Catalunya, which he will return to next weekend for the Catalan Grand Prix, should suit him better than Le MansThe Barcelona tests scheduled just after next weekend will be an opportunity to work in detail on these areas of weakness.

Interview conducted by Luca Bartolomeo and Michaël Duforest, in Le Mans.

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