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The Castrol LCR Honda team of Lucio Cecchinello, who has run an HRC team in the MotoGP World Championship since 2006 and competed in the first year with rookie Casey Stoner, who won the World Championship the following year in the first 800 cc season for Ducati, achieved the best Honda result at the Thailand GP a week ago - 7th place for Johann Zarco.
The former GP rider with seven 125cc GP victories has a new Asian in the team after seven years in place of Taka Nakagami, Moto2 newcomer Somkiat Chantra, who enjoys incredible admiration from motorcycle enthusiasts in Thailand as the country's first MotoGP rider.
Chantra didn't pull any punches on his debut in the premier class. He managed 21st place in qualifying, finished the sprint after 13 laps in 19th position, 24.5 seconds behind, and crossed the finish line on Sunday in 18th place, 31.4 seconds behind.
Rookie colleague Ai Ogura, on the other hand, left friends and foes speechless at the weekend, not only because of his sensational 5th starting position on the second row, but also because of his 4th and 5th places in the two races. The extremely small time gaps of the newcomer also caused concern among the Trackhouse Aprilia rider's opponents - the gaps in the two races in Buriram were 4.3 and an incredible 7.4 seconds.
Does the 55-year-old Cecchinello regret that the Japanese Moto2 world champion and long-time Honda protégé Ogura, who was already in talks with HRC to ride with LCR after his second Moto2 World Championship place in 2022, has moved to the competition?
"All I know is that Ogura received an offer from Honda after the 2022 season, but he didn't want to switch to MotoGP at the time. I never spoke to him about his team choice for 2025 and never asked him why he preferred the Trackhouse team," Cecchinello explained in an interview with GPOne.com. "All I can say is that I am truly impressed by his performance. I think everyone else in the MotoGP world is excited too. Ogura was faster in the race than experienced riders like Bezzecchi. He was very consistent and finished close behind Bagnaia in the sprint. That is really very remarkable. Ogura is without a doubt a huge talent."
The fair-minded Cecchinello does not miss the opportunity to give Trackhouse-Aprilia team manager Davide Brivio clear praise. "Davide always manages to sign riders that no one else really believes in," praises Lucio. "Remember Suzuki when he signed Joan Mir and Alex Rins, who then secured 1st and 3rd place in the 2020 World Championship. Before that, many experts doubted his choice..."
"And during last year, many people suspected that Davide would sign Joe Roberts for Trackhouse, because Joe is American and Trackhouse is a US team. But surprisingly, Davide chose Ogura, even though at first glance it didn't make much sense to put a Japanese rider on an Italian motorcycle in an American team. That was not necessarily to be expected from a marketing point of view. But Davide only looks at pure performance - and in his opinion there was a lot to be said for Ogura. And once again I am deeply impressed by his ability to find the right riders."
Those close to Ogura suspect that the clever Japanese did not see a MotoGP future at HRC after the 2023 season, because of the often strange decisions on the transfer market, where old stars like Lorenzo or Pol Espargaró were repeatedly given preference, as well as because of the ongoing technical misery and the departure of team leader Marc Márquez.
That is why Ogura no longer competed in the 2024 Moto2 season with Idemitsu Honda Asia, but switched from Kalex to Boscoscuro motorcycles and to the Spanish MT helmets - Msi team of Tony Martín, which at the time took over the racing team from Sito Pons. Ogura took on this risky move and also took his long-time German crew chief Norman Rank from Honda Asia with him to the MT helmets - MSi team.
Lucio Cecchinello is pleased with the upward trend at Honda in the areas of aerodynamics and the rideability of the engine, but he would like more top performance from the RC213 engine. "Because in the top speed measurements we are in the second half of the field."
LCR secured Honda's last MotoGP victory to date in 2023 - through Alex Rins in Texas. But the Spaniard then decided to switch to Monster Yamaha despite having a valid HRC contract for 2024. Rins was disappointed because he never received the promised technical updates from HRC in 2023.
Cecchinello's MotoGP contract with Honda expires after the 2026 season. He will then have worked with the same partner for a year longer than Pramac did with Ducati, where the cooperation lasted from 2005 until the end of 2024.
"We also have an option with Honda for a collaboration for 2027," revealed Cecchinello, who wants to remain a loyal partner of Honda in the new 850 cc era.
What does Lucio Cecchinello expect from his riders Zarco and Chantra in the next 21 Grands Prix?
"I think Zarco will achieve similar results to Buriram this year, between 6th and 8th place, especially when we get to Europe and we come across some tracks with not very long straights where we are a bit at a disadvantage. I am thinking of Jerez, Le Mans, Sachsenring and Assen, for example", Cecchnello says. "And if the positive trend in the development of the bike continues, we can take another small step forward in the second half of the season. Then we can aim for the top five. That is our goal. And of course we want to move even further forward in 2026. But at the moment it is still unclear which riders we will have in 2026. Because our riders do not have contracts for the coming season. I think Chanta will make some interesting progress in some races during the 2025 season after Jerez," says Cecchinello.
"Because he has potential. We have already noticed his amazing abilities when braking and turning in very slow corners, and there is nothing to complain about when leaning either. But he still needs to improve in the high-speed corners."
