It’s not that long ago that Johann Zarco was regularly cited by many of his MotoGP peers as one of the most dangerous racers on the grid thanks to the aggressive and sometimes uncaring style that the double Moto2 world champion brought to the premier class.
But, now the grid’s oldest rider at 35, a combination of time and acceptance has somehow rehabilitated the Frenchman into someone that his rivals are instead seemingly a little in awe of, as he uses his abilities to stick the satellite LCR Honda into places it has no right to be – as he demonstrated most recently in the Spanish Grand Prix.
From his early days in the premier class on the Tech3 Yamaha, Zarco built himself something of an unfair reputation not only as a star talent and a master of wet and especially damp and tricky conditions but also as someone that perhaps needed a slightly wider berth when it came to close racing.
That famously came to a head at the Red Bull Ring in 2020, when a lunge on Franco Morbidelli at the Austrian circuit’s famously fast Turn 2 kink left their bikes hurtling across the path of Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales, narrowly avoiding what could have been a dark day for the sport had the timing been slightly different.
Zarco was vehemently slated, especially by Rossi and his protege Morbidelli, and handed a pitlane start penalty by the stewards. Many at the time expressed a quiet belief that Zarco had been treated perhaps a little unfairly – but it nonetheless meant that the tag of aggressive rider stuck with him for quite a few years afterwards.
Essentially clean since then, though, in terms of trips to the stewards’ room (especially, quite ironically, compared to Morbidelli!), the 35-year-old has quietly rehabilitated his reputation – and with a younger generation of riders coming through more used to the cut and thrust of the lower classes these days, it means that what was once criticism of Zarco has now turned into a begrudging respect.
That was highlighted after Jerez, after Zarco once again showed off his skills in damp conditions (a situation where fellow Honda rider Luca Marini claims Zarco’s now by far the most talented rider in the world) to stick the LCR bike on the front row, only just missing out on pole position to Marc Marquez.
And despite Sunday’s race running in dry conditions in the end, the work done on Saturday combined with Zarco’s aggression meant that he ended up in a very strong seventh place at the chequered flag, having managed to keep young talents like Ai Ogura and Raul Fernandez stuck behind him for most of the 25 laps.
“I spent a lot of time behind Johann, and I had to change my style a little bit to pass him,” sixth placed finisher Fernandez explained afterwards.
“Johann makes a very different style to all of us, especially because he is using the Honda. He uses a lot the rear tyre, he stops the bike quite early and turns it with gas, and in our case we need to use more the front tyre.
“In that moment, I was quite blocked behind him, and when I had the chance to overtake him, it was only when he had the drop on the rear tyre.”
And that, said Zarco after the race, was the strategy all along, knowing as he did that Honda remains at a deficit to his rivals but that it would be entirely possible to be a pain in their sides for quite a bit of the race – and to keep them trapped behind him.
“The strategy of the race was, the top guys will overtake me,” he explained. “But then, I don’t need to fight – but compared to the sprint, try to use their speed to have the best pace as possible and make a gap with the guys behind.
“Which I’ve done, and that was so good. And I really thought that Raul would give up because I got a bit of advantage on him!
“When you are slower than another rider, you cannot attack because theoretically and practically you lose metres every lap. So once you lose a bit of gap, you cannot overtake.
“When you overtake a rider, it’s really that you are very close and then you can attack because everyone is riding very fast in every corner.
“So you won’t be able from 10 metres far to overtake stronger and overtake. You miss the turn if you do that because you are not on a track day.”
The end result was ultimately him finishing well off the podium, but Zarco was adamant afterwards that the race served as a valuable learning experience not just for him but also for Honda, as it got the chance to run at a higher level than usual and to watch closely the rivals it feels should be engaging with on a weekly basis.
“Every time, you get the best reference in front of you,” Zarco added. “A reference of the Marquez brothers for this weekend, it was too fast. So you don’t even have time to analyse where you lose or not. Diggia [Fabio Di Giannantonio] was also a bit faster, but a bit too much.
“But then [Jorge] Martin was perfect because you can really see some places where maybe he was not so confident and some others where he was doing great.
“So I was like trying to play with my weapons. So that was good to analyse. And then it’s easier to give a comment to Honda.”