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Since Ai Ogura - who has been fighting for the Moto2 world title for three years and narrowly missed it in 2022 against Augusto Fernández - has agreed to enter the 2025 MotoGP World Championship with Trackhouse Aprilia, HRC had to look for the second best choice Asian rider to replace Takaaki Nakagami in the LCR team for 2025.
It became obvious during the Britsh Grand Prix that top management at Honda Racing Corporation is on the verge of signing Somkiat Chantra for the premier class on a two year contract. For 3 years, Taka Nakagami's the position had been doubtful. In the meantime, the former Moto2 GP winner spent nearly eight years in the MotoGP without claiming a podium, despite qualifying first at Aragón in 2020. And he showed no signs of improving his results, scoring only 11 points at the first ten events, slipping down to a 20th position in the overall rankings.
Nakagami has been with HRC all his life and made headlines by winning the Suzuka 8 Hours a few times. He is liked by the Japanese engineers and the team for his attitude and should have a good chance to join the HRC World Superbike team in 2025.
Honda's Asian team entered the Moto2 Championship for the first time nearly 15 years ago and, up until now, it never managed to get a rider into the MotoGP. Nakagami spent his best Moto2 years at Italtrans before he moved to the MotoGP. The team was run by Tadayuki Okada at the beginning, then Hiroshi Aoyama took over in 2017.
Ogura hadn't been picked for the MotoGP by HRC management after his good Moto2 season in 2022 and decided to join Teó Martin's Spanish MT Helmets MSI team 2024. This was a first indication of the Japanese rider's frustration for how he had been treated by HRC and for the poor performance of the Honda RC213V.
While all the MotoGP factory teams have picked their riders for 2025, there are still some interesting openings left on the satellite teams. LCR Honda riders are contracted (and paid) by HRC. That’s why Honda decides on the riders LCR chooses. But, in LCR, the Japanese company, Idemitsu, has been the main sponsor for one of the two bikes (Castrol for the other one), and Idemitsu and Honda both want to put an Asian rider in the premier class.
While Ogura is in 2nd place in the Moto2 overall standings at the moment, Chantra is only in 11th place. This is why the 25-year-old Thai rider - who started his international career in 2015 in the Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup - hasn't yet agreed to switching to the MotoGP. But HRC's top management is convinced that Chantra (who fell at Silverstone) will sign a deal during the Austria Grand Prix or in early September.
LCR boss Lucio Cecchinello joined Honda in it’s first year in the premier class with Casey Stoner and will continue in 2025 with Johann Zarco. LCR Honda has scored four MotoGP wins so far: three with Cal Crutchlow between 2016 and 2018 and one with Alex Rins in Texas in 2023.
