MotoGP: Honda Faces a Serious Risk of Losing Alex Rins to this Rival Team

Alex Rins, who joined Honda at the beginning of the 2023 MotoGP season, is reportedly considering switching to Yamaha because of the company's treatment of him. Following Suzuki's exit from MotoGP at the conclusion of the 2022 season, Rins joined the LCR Honda team, and his former teammate Joan Mir joined the factory Honda team to ride with Marc Marquez. The LCR Honda rider had two operations on his tibia and fibula, and he has been chronicling his rehabilitation. Rins is trying to make it back for the MotoGP race at Silverstone on August 6 following the summer break. Although Rins races for a satellite team, he is under direct contract with Honda until the end of 2024. However, his contract has a provision that would enable him to depart early if he were given a factory deal from another team. There have been whispers that Yamaha has already contacted Rins about replacing Franco Morbidelli, since the Italian's results have apparently not been convincing enough for the company to keep him.

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MotoGP: Why Alex Rins is important for Honda?

Only Honda's Alex Rins has ever taken home a race victory for the Japanese manufacturer. Honda would lose its best rider in 2023 if Rins decided to leave the team after the Spaniard won the April 2023 United States Grand Prix. In America, Rins also voiced his displeasure with Honda's treatment, namely that the company had passed him by while testing new components. In April, he remarked that Honda didn't care about him.

It has been reported that Rins asked to test the chassis being considered by Marquez and Mir, and the matter escalated when Marquez tested, raced, and eventually abandoned the Kalex chassis that Rins had also sought to test. It looks that Rins is not interested in finishing out his LCR contract under the present circumstances, and he may be open to joining Yamaha despite the fact that Yamaha is also having performance issues in MotoGP.

Ai Ogura, Honda's next indigenous hope, has a remote possibility of graduating due to her injury, although she has been off the pace while healing from a complex wrist ailment. A promising finish at Assen raised hopes for the rest of the year, but the setback is likely to delay his promotion by Honda until at least 2025.

If Alex Rins does leave for Yamaha, Honda is expected to put WorldSBK rider Iker Lecuona on the LCR bike. The Spaniard has participated in a few replacement races, has previous MotoGP experience, and has been lauded for his technical comments, all of which Honda could use right now.

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Honda dominates MotoGP and Marc Marquez

After a dismal start to the season, speculation over six-time MotoGP champion Marc's future has spread around the circuit. Although rumours have circulated that he may want to leave Honda a year early, he is presently under contract as long as the end of 2024. 

Honda's premier-class programme was severely hampered by Marquez's injury problems because of how dependent the company was on its star rider. However, now that Marquez is confident that he is fully recovered, the relative competitiveness of the Honda RC213V has become the bigger issue, as the era's most iconic rider is unable to propel it to the front without putting himself in serious danger.

Some have speculated that Honda's recent decline is attributable to the COVID-19 epidemic and, in particular, how it hampered the Japanese brands' operations at home and abroad, especially in what is still obviously very much a European championship.

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