HONDA’S DREAM TICKET
But new MotoGP deal will see Lorenzo’s salary slashed
‘The Spaniard has had enough of the red bike’
Jorge Lorenzo will switch to the Repsol Honda team for the 2019 season, joining reigning world champion Marc Marquez to create an allSpanish dream team. Bringing to an end Lorenzo’s two-season spell at Ducati, the deal unites Marquez with the only man ever to beat him in the championship chase and brings together the winner of every MotoGP crown since Casey Stoner took the title back in 2011.
The news came as a huge surprise to the paddock after weeks of rumour and speculation linking Lorenzo to a satellite Yamaha team run by Malaysian oil giant Petronas. It had seemed like a match made in heaven, but the status of that team now remains up in the air following confirmation that Lorenzo will be joining Honda. Lorenzo has made no secret of his struggles with the Ducati over the past season-and-a-half despite his first victory last time out in Mugello, as he fought to change his riding style to work with the Italian machine. But, with a combination of the Desmo’s aggressive nature and lack of mid-corner turning, it looks like the Spaniard has finally had enough of trying to reinvent the wheel on the red Italian. Things might not go all his own way at Honda, though, at least initially, with Lorenzo unlikely to find a bike any less aggressive in nature. He is nonetheless going to step onto a machine much closer in nature to the Ducati than the Yamaha he won three premier class titles with.
Honda aren’t likely to want to change that either, with the current bike developed to suit the late-braking style of reigning champion Marquez. With Lorenzo already known as a fiery character, it remains how that will play out in the garage between him and Marquez over the next two years. Honda are also rumoured to have picked up Lorenzo for a bargain price, with the 31-yearold set to take home a salary of €4 million a year: only a third of what he was earning with Ducati. But he is sure to be back at the front and fighting for the title and it is thought the shorter wheelbase of his new bike, compared to the drag bike-like Ducati, means that one of its strengths is its ability to turn quickly, hopefully allowing him to return to the high corner speed style he loves so much.