Under pressure from Zarco, Marini started talking about the future with Honda

While Johann Zarco does not hide his desire to be promoted in the official team Honda next season and logically justifies it by being the best classified of the brand’s pilots, Luca Marini invites himself into the discussions on the subject. Currently in office, the Italian knows himself in a delicate position because his contract only brings until the end of this year, which constitutes the only place that can be on the market in the HRC factory team.

Questioned this Thursday at Le Mans, to find out if he started discussions with Honda, Luca Marini indicates: “Of course. Quietly. We take our time to do things well.” Is he worried? “Never”, Ensures the Italian without stretching on the turn taken by his exchanges with the management of the team at this stage.

For his second year on the handlebars of the RC213V, Marini shows progress since he has already obtained an eighth place, in Austin, as well as three other entries in the top 10, while last year, he had made the best tenth in sprint and 12th in GP. His current 32 points are already much higher than his total loot of the 2024 season (14). The fact remains that it is behind compared to Joan Mir and Johann Zarco in pure performance.

The Frenchman, he argued a few days ago his position as the first Honda pilot. He is the one who obtained the best performances in qualifying and racing since the start of the season, and also the one who occupies the best place in the championship (seventh), a status which was already his last year (17th). Arrived from the Ducati clan in 2024, as Marini, Zarco undeniably did better.

It was by signing directly with Honda that Zarco joined the LCR team. He then left Pramac and the Ducati group, where only a one -year contract could have been offered to him. “Zarco signed directly with Honda a two -season contract plus one, but the third applied only by his position in the pilot classification, which he could not obtain, therefore resulting in the nullity of this third year”, indicated to Motorsport.com A source close on the sidelines of the Jerez weekend.

Given his current agreement, Zarco negotiates directly with Honda to obtain an extension, and he seeks in passing to assert his merit to go to the factory team. “He asks two years, which could be more than feasible, but his ambition is to run for the official team and that is more complicated”, Admitted, always in Jerez, a source at LCR.

Johann Zarco and Luca Marini are not the only names that circulate about the handlebars to be attributed alongside Joan Mir for 2026, even if the rest belongs to this stage to rumor, whether it is Pedro Acosta, who already has a contract with KTM, or Toprak Razgatlioglu, whose arrival in MotoGP is a sea serpent.