{"id":696105,"date":"2026-05-26T17:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/696105\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T17:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:30:15","slug":"lcr-honda-still-searching-for-johann-zarco-motogp-replacement-for-upcoming-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/696105\/","title":{"rendered":"LCR Honda still searching for Johann Zarco MotoGP replacement for “upcoming races”"},"content":{"rendered":"

LCR Honda is still searching for a replacement for the injured Johann Zarco for the Italian MotoGP this weekend (29\u201331 May).<\/p>\n

Zarco<\/a> is out for the Italian Grand Prix after suffering knee ligament injuries in a turn one crash at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on 17 May, as well as an injury to his lower fibula. He was taken to hospital afterwards, and left on 18 May.<\/p>\n

The two-week gap between the Catalan and Italian MotoGP<\/a> rounds means the LCR Honda<\/a> team is obliged to replace the Frenchman, although its latest statement confirms that it is yet to fill the seat on the Castrol-backed side of its team ahead of its home round.<\/p>\n

\"Johann <\/p>\n

Johann Zarco, 2026 Catalan MotoGP.<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0Gold and Goose<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Johann Zarco is awaiting surgery, the Castrol Honda LCR team is still working on finding his replacement for the upcoming races,\u201d the statement, published via social media on 25 May, reads.<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

\u201cMore information will be shared soon, once everything is finalized and secured.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for your understanding and continued support.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Takaaki <\/p>\n

Takaaki Nakagami, LCR Honda, 2024 Japanese MotoGP<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0Gold and Goose<\/p>\n

HRC test rider Takaaki Nakagami<\/a> appears the obvious choice to replace Zarco, especially given his extensive experience with the LCR team, albeit on the side of the box occupied this year by Diogo Moreira<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nakagami raced for the LCR team between 2019 and 2024, taking a best result of fourth on three occasions, as well as a pole position at the second Aragon round in 2020.<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Mugello was never the strongest track for Nakagami during his full-time racing career, but he was fifth there in his second premier class Italian Grand Prix in 2019.<\/p>\n

\"Takaaki <\/p>\n

Takaaki Nakagami, 2025 MotoGP Italian Grand Prix. Credit: Gold and Goose.<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0Gold & Goose<\/p>\n

The Japanese rider has generally been focusing on developing Honda\u2019s 850cc MotoGP for 2027 this year, although he was drafted back into the 1,000cc project after Aleix Espargaro<\/a> was injured and hospitalised after a crash while testing at Sepang in April.<\/p>\n

Nakagami last raced in MotoGP at Japan last year as a wildcard, although he retired from the race. He also replaced Luca Marini<\/a> at Mugello last year after the Italian\u2019s Suzuka 8 Hours testing crash.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LCR Honda is still searching for a replacement for the injured Johann Zarco for the Italian MotoGP this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,15612,15613,806,805,803,804,85,339434],"class_list":["post-696105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-johann-zarco","tag-lcr-honda","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports","tag-takaaki-nakagami"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}