Johann Zarco has discarded some new parts on his Honda MotoGP bike during the Australian Grand Prix sprint as he continues to struggle to regain form in the second half of the 2025 season.
The Frenchman had been Honda’s top performer ever since joining the Sakura-based manufacturer in 2024 after a two-year stint at Pramac Ducati, with a victory in the rain-hit French GP in May being the highlight of his tenure.
However, his status at Honda has shifted after factory riders Luca Marini and Joan Mir received an upgraded bike after the summer break and immediately displayed a sharp improvement in performance.
Zarco received the same upgrades in recent races, but struggled to adapt to them – managing just one top-10 finish in the last three rounds.
On Saturday, the 35-year-old took a radical decision to abandon the changes and revert to his older motorcycle, albeit with some additions, in an effort to return to the sharp end of the grid.
“We wanted to try something to get some answers on the bike, because unfortunately, since Friday, we haven’t been able to work with stability,” he explained to Canal+.
“We’re trying little things, it’s really a detail in the riding. We’re trying to find something else, because we’re still doing a lot of tests to get feedback, to get information on what’s happened since we got the new engine, the new swingarm, etc.
“Then we were able to understand that for the moment, the new engine, the new swingarm, all together, with my own settings, takes away my feeling. It gives me less confidence, I go slower and I fall. So we stay on the old one.
“It’s not an old bike. Let’s say we have the old engine, but with a new chassis. And we also put back the normal swingarm, in aluminium, to make the bike a little more malleable and at least work on my confidence. And we see that it’s already better, there’s the possibility of doing good things.”
Johann Zarco, Team LCR Honda
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images
Having made the changes late into the weekend, Zarco could only finish 12th in the sprint, four places behind the top Honda of Luca Marini.
Zarco believes the lack of practice running on his old bike could compromise his performance for the rest of the weekend.
“So, we’re only trying to adjust the bike now. But it’s too late, it’s Saturday afternoon,” he lamented. “We should have started making these adjustments on Friday.
“Unfortunately, with all this confusion that’s been going on since the end of the summer, it’s made us lose time. We’ve put a few obstacles in our own way. Well, we didn’t put them in ourselves, but it’s a bit of a hindrance.
“So, the thought right now is just ‘damn, I can’t do any better’. But I don’t have too many doubts, because you can see that it’s a track I like and there are some good things. But in the race it wasn’t bad, but not enough.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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