Let's talk MotoGP: What hasn't been said about Johann Zarco…

It’s time to take stock! Like every year for the past three years, Parlons MotoGP is embarking on a fairly important undertaking: taking stock of each rider at the end of the 2024 season, today, Johann Zarco's turn. For a good part of the winter, we will go back through the rankings in reverse, to the point of talking in detail about the world champion's campaign. Are you ready? Here we go!

Yesterday, we returned to the case ofAlex Rins; click here to find this episode.

Solid season

From now on, Johann Zarco is a centerpiece of the Honda plan. The winged firm has had a very difficult year, since we will have already covered, in just six days, the four drivers of the Japanese brand. However, the Frenchman stood out quite significantly from his colleagues, including officials. Did he have a good season? What about after a year? Analyse.

In my opinion, he did well. Zarco, consistent in performance, diligent from start to finish and fast, took about half a season to adapt to the RC213V. From Aragon onwards, he had it well in hand, and it was there that he began to greatly distance himself from Takaaki Nakagami, who, until then and in a very surprising way I admitfaced him honorably. During the overseas tour, the double Moto2 world champion recorded three top 10 finishes, one in the Sprint and two on Sunday. He concluded his season with an eighth place as his best result in Thailand.

I appreciated his attitude, humble, focused.
Fortunately, the 2019 fiasco at KTM did not happen again, which was a real fear for some. He seems attached to Honda as we saw at the Suzuka 8 Hours, and to LCR, a team which welcomed him for a few races at the end of 2019.

Congratulations to him to have spent a year like thiswithout injury, without any real hitch and without catastrophic results at the end, once he had his machine in hand. It may seem crazy, but only two drivers have scored points in each Sunday race since Aragon (nine consecutive races): Zarco and Jorge Martin, world champion.

Now be careful not to be fooled.

A trompe l'oeil?

When I said some time ago that I had no good surprises this season, I also included Zarco. The LCR pilot honored his mission, all right, but didn't blow me away. This results in a very difficult equation to solve concerning the true level of Honda in MotoGP.

Was Zarco that strong? On the one hand, Johann has outperformed his teammates, which tends to mean he may be the man for the job. But on the other hand, the colleagues in question are not at his level. Luca Marini has never come close to Zarco's level in MotoGP, and Joan Mirworld champion, experiences a fall into the void of which Felix Baumgartner would be jealous. In reality, and as some very well noted when it was his turn, he has not been there since 2022.

That leaves Takaaki Nakagami, who arouses my suspicions. The Japanese knew the bike, all right, but still: At thirty years old, no one imagined him, I think, competing with Zarco for five months. And yet, Taka' only finished with 24 points,
two places behind in the standingsin front of the two Honda Repsol officials.

So I think Zarco was good because he made a lot of progress, okay, but there's nothing to break the champagne. Our nationality bias for us, French people, is enormous, inversely proportional, even, to our taking into account the context. When I remember the general excitement after his accession to Q2 at the Aragon Grand Prix – we were on the verge of the public holiday –, I wonder if people were thinking at the level of those to whom we could directly compare him, on the one hand, and, on the other, Honda's atrocious results throughout the year.

The winged firm has just had the worst season in its history at the highest level and is not showing any real progress as
I already explained it in this article. Beware of illusions, therefore.

Conclusion

Zarco's campaign was far from bad, or even failed. He was solid, logically in front of his work colleagues. Now that that's said, I haven't seen such media pressure to make us appreciate average performances since 2014 and Fabio Quartararo's Moto3 season. Many criticize me for my subjectivity, although I assume it in this column. But if you dream of the coldness of reality, go check out his results race after race rather than listening to advice from consultants on certain French TV setswhether they have prestigious names or not. You will see that it is not so bad, that he has progressed individually over the course of a year, but that it is ultimately a matter of
a 17th place in the general classification, the same rank occupied by Augusto Fernandez the previous year and Alex Marquez (with Honda LCR!) a season before.

I'm curious what you thought of Johann Zarco in 2024, so, tell me in comments!

As a reminder, this article only reflects the thoughts of its author, and not of the entire editorial staff.

Cover photo: Michelin Motorsport