As Motorsport.com announced last Monday, Alex Rins will race next season with the LCR team, with whom he has reached an agreement that is only pending signing, which could arrive in the coming days, before the summer break. .
The novelty is that the Barcelona rider will link up directly with the Japanese constructor, so he secures a contract as a factory rider and the same material as the official HRC riders, who next season will be Marc Márquez and, almost certainly, his current partner at Suzuki: Joan Mir.
“Let’s see if we can announce something at the end of the race on Sunday or next week,” Rins said in Assen on Friday.
“It would be curious,” he admitted when told that next year he could continue to be Joan Mir’s partner in another factory, although one official and the other satellite.
“The conditions regarding material will be the same, we spoke with LCR because they have not given us the option of going to the official one. I would not have disliked wearing the Repsol colors, I was with them in 2013 and 2014 and I would have done illusion, at least, to have the possibility”.
Regarding the bad moment that Honda is going through, Rins said: “It is a great challenge, the V4 engine is going to be a great change, but we are prepared, it does not scare us,” he assured.
Honda wants to renew its rider line-up for 2023 and is determined to get a cast of leading players, fast riders and successful riders, who can contribute to understanding how to make a winning bike again.
Rins, who was promoted to MotoGP in 2017 with Suzuki, has accumulated 17 podiums and four wins in these seasons, in addition to being third overall in the 2020 championship overall.
“Rins’ first option was to have a 2023 Ducati, but they offered us a 2022,” said a source familiar with the negotiations. “What has convinced Alex is that he will have the same material as the official riders,” regarding his agreement with Honda.
The arrival of Rins at LCR means the departure of Alex Márquez from the HRC structure at the end of the season, a decision made by the pilot in the face of the passivity shown by HRC so that he could continue to be part of the house’s list of pilots.
Not in vain, to date Honda has not formally informed any of its riders that it will not follow the next course, but it did inform them that any decision this year would go a long way, making it clear with its inaction that it opened the door to look for a future outside the company.
This has caused the movement of Alex Márquez, who has advanced negotiations with Gresini, and also that of Pol Espargaró, who has closed an agreement with KTM to race in the Tech3 satellite structure and which is waiting to be officially announced.
