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MotoGP
72 hours with Johann Zarco – the resurrected race winner of MotoGP™
Ahead of 2023's final race in Spain, we sat down with veteran French rider Johann Zarco, who finally grabbed his first MotoGP™ win after seven seasons of trying.
This edition of our 72 Hours With series was never intended to be about winning a MotoGP™ race, but rather about what drives a rider to continue competing at the highest level despite never having taken a victory in the premier class of motorcycle racing over six years of trying. But that all changed on October 21 at Phillip Island, just off the coast of Melbourne, in Australia, where Johann Zarco took his first MotoGP™ win in just about the best way possible: a final lap multi-rider dash across the line at over 300kph.
He clinched top spot by 0.201s, with barely the length of his own Ducati Desmosedici separating him and the rider in second. A victory that every rider dreams of. The pivotal moment. Life changing. Pure ecstasy. Dream achieved.
Only, that's not quite how the Frenchman - the first ever Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup winner, a two-time consecutive Moto2™ world champion, and up until that moment, a 19-time MotoGP™ podium finisher – described what it's like to take two wheeled racing's greatest prize on any given weekend.
The long-awaited victory in Australia came after an all-time battle
© Gold & Goose/Red Bull Content Pool
Victory seven years into his MotoGP™ career made victory even sweeter
© Gold & Goose/Red Bull Content Pool
"When you're younger, you think getting a victory in the World Championship - not just MotoGP™ - or even becoming a world champion will change your life, because you will be rich and everything will be easier," he said. "But the way my career went, I didn't get that. For sure, I have a better life, financially richer, but not enough that I no longer need to work anymore and just live on an island."
We went to Valencia to follow Zarco in the final race of the 2023 season. It was a particularly significant weekend for him as it's his final race with the Prima Pramac Racing Ducati squad. He's served his time with the Italian marque and next year moves to the independent LCR Honda team. (For the uninitiated, he's going from one of the best bikes on the grid to one of the more difficult to ride.)
His chances of ever claiming that elusive first premier-class win were looking very slim had he not gotten the job done on the Ducati this year, which would have left him with the unfortunate title as the rider with the most MotoGP™ podiums in history without a single win. A title that no motorcycle racer wants.
The MotoGP™ title fight went down to the wire in Valencia and it was Zarco's team-mate Jorge Martín up against factory Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia in the showdown. So, while it was a special outing for the Frenchman, let's say he’s got a quieter weekend than he'd otherwise have expected under the circumstances. Having just come back from three months of racing in the searing heat of various circuits across Asia, the 15°C of eastern Spain meant the Cannes native was wrapped up in his hospitality like he's about to venture on an Antarctic expedition.
Reflecting on the immaterial changes since that day down under, he said: "When we say ‘Johann Zarco, MotoGP™ winner', I feel quite proud. I'm part of this group of winners and I'm so happy for it. It really touched the ego, let's say. But it's not the same feeling as when I actually did it and crossed the line. It was not about the ego in this moment, I wasn't proud, I was happy and relieved. Now, I can breathe more and be happy for it. Explaining it in a more 'statistical' way, it's a proud feeling."
This feeling of controlling everything is an adrenaline rush that's hard to find in anything else. That's why you keep doing it
The funny thing about these achievements and victories is that taking the win isn’t 'enough'. It's about the way someone wins. At least, that's a huge factor in the validity of the achievement for most people on the outside. Did they win in wet conditions? Ah that’s 'easier'. Did some big contenders fail to finish? Well, you should try and win with them in the race at the chequered flag! Did they simply clear off into the distance? Boring! Sports fans are fickle.
But there was no such debate with Zarco's first win. It was one of the most exhilarating tracks on the calendar, all the key contenders still in the game and a frantic last-lap dash.
Zarco's win came a few races before the end of his Ducati contract
© Gold & Goose/Red Bull Content Pool
"On the personal side, it would be the same taste - this pleasure that I won," he said. "But for the consequence of how people can speak about it afterwards… I prefer to win like this. As everyone says, it's a real race!
"If you're in the game, a victory is a victory. It doesn’t matter, you have to do it. But, for the people just watching, it 'shuts them up' a bit more after this. It's better this way."
Motorsport calendars are getting busier year on year, particularly in MotoGP™ where they now race twice on a weekend – one on Saturday with the Sprint, which is half the distance of Sunday's Grand Prix. There's such a continual 'keep moving forward' mantra that quite often it feels like riders barely get to truly appreciate the gravity of that first victory; they're so quickly off to focus on the next one.
This is why that feeling of total satisfaction we got from speaking to Zarco was quite refreshing. And looking at his story more in-depth, it's easy to see the root of it.
Zarco's first podium was on home soil at Le Mans and he repeated in 2023
© Gold & Goose/Red Bull Content Pool
Zarco led his debut MotoGP™ race in 2017 for around one-third of the Grand Prix before crashing out. His first podium came under immense pressure on home soil in Le Mans during his fifth outing in the series. Who would have thought he'd have to wait 115 GP weekends thereafter to finally claim the top spot?
We asked Zarco to explain what kept him going before tasting victory once again.
"This grew in my mind and body through the years," he said. "It's amazing to race at this speed. You understand so many things and you have to be so, so good in everything to have control of this speed. This feeling of controlling everything is an adrenaline rush that's hard to find in anything else. That's why you keep doing it."
Years at the top has given Zarco a different perspective on success
© Gold & Goose/Red Bull Content Pool
He may not have taken first place in all that time, but to be capable of taking podiums in MotoGP™ and only missing out on wins by mere thousandths of a second. That makes him one of the top 0.1 percent of the 1 percent of the world's fastest motorcycle riders and as time has passed that means something to him.
"If you're only staying in this world and not seeing what’s going on outside, you can become crazy and forget how fast you are," he said. "Then, when you are training (on a circuit away from MotoGP™ weekends) or you meet with riders from other categories, you can see how much faster you are.
“You realise, 'woah, I've reached a level that even I didn't expect.' So, for me, this action made me realise that as long as I push myself in MotoGP™, trying to reach the target, even if you don't achieve it, you're still one of the very fastest riders. That’s something that makes me feel good."
Racers aren't ones for participation medals but, at the same time, too many don't give a single race victory the majesty it deserves. It's so much more difficult than fans and competitors alike believe it to be. Therefore, it would be detrimental for most racers to simply have the chase of the win to be their north star week-in, week-out.
Zarco sensationally left his post as a Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team rider mid-season back in 2019 when their bike was still very much in its development stage compared to the race-winning package it is now.
"I was too scared to lose my skills as a fast rider," he says. "The base is being a fast rider. You need to keep the light on for victory, but enjoy everything else on the side to appreciate your moment. You can only do this if you're mature. Some riders can be mature in this way at 22, others around 30."
But maturing can be as beneficial as it can be the undoing of many competitive careers, especially for those with ambitions not just to win, but to become a champion.
"I understood at the time that to be champion you need a special mind, an egotistical mind," he said. "Sometimes, when you get very fast, you don't need to be so clever and understanding of what's going on around your life. It's rare to find a champion with an open mind. It's often that in this case you become slower, because you're receiving so much information and you lose control. There's too much of it and you don't ride naturally anymore. So, when I beat the other riders, they have no doubt in their skills and only look for other explanations for their results.
"Me, I'm maybe too much on the other side. I've got very good skills, but sometimes I think these skills are not good enough anymore to win or be on the podium every time. That's why I try to develop this side."
The mid-season split with KTM in 2019 marked a major career turning point
© Samo Vidic/Red Bull Content Pool
I was too scared to lose my skills as a fast rider
At the time of his departure from the Austrian factory, many said it was the beginning of the end of his career. After all, he was 29 years old back then. Following his depature at Misano, he rocked up in his motorhome at the next race to search for a ride in the following year. He cut a fallen-hero-style as he left the track one evening on his bicycle, sun-setting, looking out on the desert mountain scenery that surrounds the venue. No second guesses as to what was running through his mind at that moment.
I'm pretty happy to turn a page and start a new chapter. I did my time with Ducati
That period was the making of Johann Zarco, however. For the 2020 season, he joined the third-tier Ducati squad and ended his year-long drought of podiums at round three in the Czech Republic. So good was the rest of the year that he bagged the Pramac seat – just a step below the factory squad – for the following season, where he stayed until this last hurrah in Valencia with an added 12 podiums and one win to his tally. A real career resurrection story.
It would have been the perfect sign-off to claim a second victory before moving on to pastures new, but alas it was 'only' to be another second place by 0.360s. Bagnaia laid it all out there to take the overall championship title for the second year running with a race victory. He didn't have to win as the title was guaranteed, Martin had already crashed out. He could have waved Zarco past for the dream goodbye, but as you already know, he wouldn't want it that way.
Zarco gets a first taste of his 2024 LCR Honda ride in Valencia
© Gold & Goose/Red Bull Content Pool
The now French veteran accepts that his time on the most competitive bike in the class is done, potentially as is his ability to take another MotoGP™ victory given his new package. But whatever the case, there are no regrets here. "I'm pretty happy to turn a page and start a new chapter soon," he said. "I did my time with Ducati."
He revealed post-race that he put himself under a lot of pressure, not for a second win, but because he wanted to come away from 2023 with fifth in the championship. The second place did the trick and the #5 walks into the LCR Honda pits next season as the fifth fastest rider on the planet.
But who's to say this is the real beginning of the end? We’re reminded of his departing comment on Thursday, something he's tried to live by while keeping the light on for victory all this time: "they didn't know it was impossible, so they did it."
