The Spaniard confirmed that he chose Honda's satellite team because of the possibility of riding an official bike in the next MotoGP season. Current Suzuki rider stressed that with the announcement of Álex Márquez on the Gresini team it is clear where he will be next year
Álex Rins did not want to wait for the official announcement before announcing that he will be riding for LCR Honda during the 2023 MotoGP season. Right after the Dutch GP, the Spaniard revealed that only the "last signature" is missing, but that the deal with Lucio Cecchinello's team is already "more or less done".
Earlier on Sunday (26), Gresini announced the signing of Álex Márquez, who will form a duo with Fabio Di Giannantonio next year, confirming the rumors that circulated in recent days. This officially opens one of the vacancies at LCR. The other is that of Takaaki Nakagami, but there is no official version about the permanence or not of the Japanese.
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Asked if he was going into the vacations with his future settled, Rins replied with a smile, "The truth is yes. There are still some small details to close, but it's more or less done. All that's missing is the last signature."
"There is nothing official, but more or less it is already done. With the departure of Álex, who announced today [Sunday] that he is going to Gresini, the truth is that I am happy, because it is a very nice project and I have a lot of desire," he stressed.
Rins made it clear that the fact of having an official bike in Lucio Cecchinello's team was fundamental to define the choice over Gresini's Ducati.
"What I was looking for was an official bike, with factory backing. Ducati couldn't give me that, and in the end we ruled it out because we had that," he justified. "It is an interesting project, because the bike is not going very well in terms of results, so we will see what we can do. I like the challenge that is presented. We did a good job with Suzuki, so we will try to do the same with Honda," he added.
Suzuki's titleholder since moving up to MotoGP in 2017. The #42 was heading to renew with the Hamamatsu factory, but had to seek a new direction for his career after the automaker's untimely decision to abandon the premier class of the MotoGP World Championship at the end of the season.
MotoGP is now on vacation and will resume on August 7 with the British GP at Silverstone.GRANDE PRÊMIO is following all the activities of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship.