Johann Zarco's satellite status at one stage during the 2025 MotoGP season caused him to 'suffer' due to having only one of Honda's updated bikes. The veteran French rider was Honda's leading light during a miserable 2024 campaign, maintaining that status for much of the first half of the season. He won a wet French Grand Prix, ending a two-year drought for Honda, before finishing second at the dry British Grand Prix a few weeks later. These achievements earned Zarco a new two-year Honda deal to remain with LCR to the end of 2027, with full support from HRC. However, his results dropped off in the second half of the season as his factory Honda team counterparts began to enjoy greater success. This was due to Joan Mir and Luca Marini getting Honda's latest updates first, while Zarco only had them on one of his bikes for a time. Speaking at the end of the season, Zarco admitted this made it harder for him to adjust to the upgrades. He said, 'Given their position, they [the factory team riders] have a different responsibility, because they have to do the testing, everything, and we saw during the year that, when we are a bit limited by parts, I was the one who had to wait a bit.' He continued, 'I had this imbalance, with one bike that [the upgrades] while the other didn’t, and I think I suffered during some races in that situation.' Despite his difficult second half to the season, Zarco still ended 2025 as Honda's leading rider in 12th in the standings. From next season, Honda will operate in a higher concession ranking, which means it will no longer be able to test with its race riders privately in-season and be bound by an engine development freeze. However, Zarco doesn’t anticipate this changing his life very much, as he hasn’t had any extra testing and only had two [test] tyres for the whole year.
