The LCR team has been missing victory since 2018, and Honda’s lack of competitiveness certainly didn’t help. Now there’s Alex Rins in place of Alex Marquez and Lucio believes it: the team is stronger and the chances double, with sprint races
March 2, 2023
With what spirit Alex Rins did he switch from the Suzuki factory team to a Honda satellite team? And what will he be able to do on the Cecchinello team’s Honda LCR, vacated by Alex Marquez? Lucio Cecchinello she is optimistic.
“Obviously – the Italian manager declared on the Speedweek website – we spoke at length with Rins, who was at Suzuki for six years and is used to the advantages of a factory team. Now he races in a satellite team, albeit on a factory bike. “I’m sure Alex is honest enough and smart enough to understand that now the situation is different, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t make every effort to support him. He may even have seen that we work twice as hard.”
The last LCR victory dates back to 2018 and the team comes from a negative season, it finished the championship with Alex Marquez e Taka Nakagami out of first fifteen, with the disappointing tenth place in the team world championship. Long gone are the days when LCR-Honda scored three MotoGP victories with Crutchlow in 2016. Podiums have also become scarce, but then last year the factory Honda team only took two…
“We – adds Lucio – improved our structures in 2022: Beefy Bourguignon is now the technical director for both riders and coordinates the two team bosses: Klaus Nöhles with Taka and David Garcia with Alex. This definitely gives us a much stronger structure in the box. We are now closer to the factory team.”
Will Alex Rins succeed – wonders Speedweek – a fight for victory with the Honda LCR, he who won two GPs with Suzuki last year?
“Winning races again is obviously one of the our goals – cuts short Cecchinello who made his MotoGP debut with his team in 2006, with Honda and Stoner – and also a victory in a sprint race would be great. The possibilities increase because we will have 21 sprint races and 21 classic races. Even the weather conditions could sometimes play in our favor: we will always be concentrated”.
