Johann Zarco and Luca Marini have both come to Honda from Ducati teams – But the Frenchman has scored the most championship points of all Honda riders
After 16 of 20 race weekends, Johann Zarco has emerged as Honda’s spearhead, especially in terms of the World Championship standings. After the Japanese Grand Prix, the Frenchman has 36 championship points to his name. His LCR teammate Takaaki Nakagami follows with 28 points.
The satellite team has clearly outperformed the factory team. Joan Mir has scored 20 points so far and Luca Marini seven. In the team standings, the two Honda teams occupy the last two places.
LCR, however, has more than twice as many points (64) as the formerly successful factory team. Zarco was the best-placed Honda rider in eight Grands Prix. He was ahead of his brand in six sprints.
LCR team boss Lucio Cecchinello has already praised Zarco’s positive attitude. He is working hard with the engineers and not giving up despite the difficult handling of the RC213V. Zarco also often expresses himself more positively than his brand colleagues.
The situation is quite different from 2019, when Zarco did not get along with KTM at all and the contract was terminated after the summer. At that time, the Frenchman was not yet ready to develop a project.
But he can also get a lot out of the Honda in terms of riding. Marini, who, like Zarco, joined Honda this year, knows the Frenchman from their time together at Ducati. There, all the data for all the riders was freely accessible.
“Johann can brake very hard and deep into the corner with the Honda,” says Marini, comparing: “That wasn’t possible for him with the Ducati. On the brakes, he always lost two tenths of a second. On the exit, he might have found two tenths of a second.“
”Now he still gains a lot on the exit, but he no longer loses anything on the brakes. That has changed.” And that’s one of the reasons why Zarco is regularly the fastest Honda rider in the field.
“Me,” Marini compares himself to Zarco, ”still don’t feel as good under braking as I did in previous years [with the Ducati]. There is still room for improvement in this area. Especially when braking straight ahead.”
“In my opinion, that’s where Ducati makes the biggest difference.” Honda has made progress with the new aerodynamics that have been in use since Misano 2. But compared to the European competition, there is still a lack of grip on corner exit.