MotoGP, Zarco: "It was unprofessional of me to yell at Spencer"

Johann Zarco arrives at his home Grand Prix in Le Mans well aware that he cannot fight for the podium under normal conditions. Perhaps rain may reshuffle the cards, although the forecast on the eve seemed to suggest a dry weekend in France. But in the press conference that preceded the start of on-track activities, there was one topic that Zarco wanted to address and it concerns the altercation he experienced in Jerez in the race commission after the incident involving him with Aleix Espargarò.

The LCR Frenchman had raised the tone excessively, ending up getting kicked out of the meeting, after criticizing the actions of Freddie Spencer and the other race commissioners in a very harsh way. This morning in Le Mans the Frenchman had a meeting that served to clarify with them, in the hope that there will be no more episodes like the one that occurred on Spanish soil.

"It's been two weeks and I arrived at the meeting calmer, "Johann explained , "For me it was not professional to raise my voice in the race commission in Jerez, but the incident had just happened and I also didn't like the way the meeting was going, so I had to say things. It was unprofessional of me to do it that way. But at least I told Freddie and the other commissioners that obviously they are free to make the decisions they think are right. I said I disagreed, I as well as the other riders, with some of those decisions. Sometimes as a rider you can't communicate your feelings well, today it was good to talk about it calmly. I didn't like the feeling I had during that meeting, because I was the one affected and in the end I was the one who had to justify myself. That made me nervous, I would say almost angry."

Closing the parenthesis on the episode, Zarco described this first part of the year riding an uncompetitive Honda.
"It's a good experience to have, I knew it was going to be tough and it is. Things at the moment I'm a little frustrated, but really then I stop and think about it and realize we're doing our job. For this weekend I honestly didn't expect to have so much support from the fans, instead both yesterday and this morning it was like that and that will hopefully give me a little extra to go strong with the Honda and maybe be able to at least stay close to the top ten, that would already be a good result for me. I would be grateful for that, I think it would give an extra boost to me, to the team and also to Honda. We wouldn't have anything new on the bike here, we tried them all in Jerez and we already saw that some things were not working. So we will start from a base that we already know to try to do the best and maybe be able to feel good in the saddle."

A frustrating experience that Zarco has actually already experienced in KTM.
"Five years ago I went to KTM and I wasn't ready for that task, to accept going less fast. I didn't understand how to divide the potential that the bike had and that I had as a rider. Now with my experience I understand better what I do on the bike. I think because of that it is very different, and maybe today I have the opportunity to achieve the goal I missed five years ago, which is to develop the bike. I can say that when you're in a race and you can't go as fast as the other riders, that's the worst thing for a rider. But now I can stay calm and I see Honda's work, this also gives me motivation to improve to be ready when the bike is ready."

Johann also commented on the new regulations.
"I think every change is interesting. But there is a long way to go, until 2027 the bikes will still improve and I think the challenge will be for the engineers in trying to have the same performance as today with less things on the bike, let's say. As a rider maybe it will be less challenging, because today's bikes are really difficult. But I see it as a distant thing today, I think it's up to the engineers to think about it already and not me."

In 2023, Zarco was often the rider with the highest top speed, an aspect in which Honda is lacking today. But it is not the aspect that makes the RCV suffer according to the Frenchman.
"Top speed is not fundamental, when you have it you have it. But that's not what makes a big difference in lap time. Today Honda's problem is aerodynamic and that's why we suffer in fast corners, but also on the straight this penalizes us, because I don't think it's an engine problem. I cannot compare the seasons with Ducati with this one, in that period even if I had the same bike as others I was faster down the straight. Maybe it depended on the way I came out of the corners, my aerodynamic shape in the saddle. Then on some tracks actually the one who has the fastest speed is the one who brakes later, because the speed trap is practically at the braking point. So it's hard to tell."

Automatic Translation by DeepL