Honda HRC has announced this Tuesday a one-year extension to Takaaki Nakagami’s agreement for its LCR satellite team into the 2023 MotoGP World Championship. The Monaco-based team of the golden wing has thus ended rumours about a possible exit of its Japanese pilot. 

Behind those rumours were not only the Japanese’s poor performance during the current season but also his involvement in several incidents which attracted harsh criticism from its rivals. Interestingly, one of the ‘victims’ of the reckless manoeuvres from the #30, was the Spaniard Álex Rins, who will be his new teammate next season.  

The news was released by the Tokyo giant via a public note in which they explained their new one-year deal with the 30-year-old pilot and the continuation of their MotoGP partnership. 

Nakagami, who made his MotoGP debut in the 2018 World Championship, will take part in his sixth campaign in 2023 under the orders of the LCR team and with the official support of Honda. 

The agreement was reached after the young Japanese promise Ai Ogura, who is currently second in the Moto2 standings, rejected the possibility of making the leap to MotoGP. 

BREAKING NEWS ‼️ @takanakagami will ride for LCR Honda IDEMITSU in 2023.

Ahead of this weekend’s #AragonGP, Takaaki Nakagami and HRC have signed a contract extension that will keep the 30-year-old riding for the LCR Honda IDEMITSU team in the #MotoGP class in 2023. pic.twitter.com/2EvQlZkRDb

— LCR Team (@lcr_team) September 13, 2022

In the statement, Honda spoke of Takaaki Nakagami’s evolution as a pilot: “Nakagami has demonstrated consistent improvements and so far, during his 80 MotoGP race starts: has finished as the top Independent Team Rider on five occasions and has taken six top-five finishes. Furthermore, Nakagami has accumulated one Pole Position and four Front Row starts in the premier class alongside his 14 Moto2 World Championship podiums, which included two wins”.

The Chiba-born rider, for his part, expressed his satisfaction with the deal: “I am very happy to be able to continue racing in MotoGP in 2023 with LCR Honda IDEMITSU. I would like to thank IDEMITSU and Honda HRC for their continuous support. I am looking forward to the next season, and I will give it everything to achieve the best results with the team. Meanwhile, for the rest of this season, I will continue to work hard to improve my performance.”

LCR Honda Team Manager, Lucio Cecchinello, said: “We are very pleased with this announcement, since 2020 ‘Taka’ has proved to be a very fast rider able to fight for podium positions and this year he has consistently fought to finish as the top Honda rider”.

“I trust in his potential and thanks to his six years of experience riding the Honda RCV213 motorbike, he will definitely help the LCR Honda IDEMITSU Team and HRC to improve our bike package and to close the gap with our competitors.”

This was the fourth and last Honda machine up for grabs for 2023. Marc Márquez and Joan Mir will make up the official team, while Taka Nakagami and Álex Rins will compete for the satellite structure of the LCR. 

After this contract renewal, only one place remains to complete next year’s MotoGP grid. The vacancy belongs to the ‘new’ GasGas team, a subsidiary of KTM and which will ‘lend’ its name and colours to the current Tech 3. 

It seems almost certain, however, that this last place on the grid will go to current Moto2 rider, Spain’s Augusto Fernández. The latter would team up with Pol Espargaró, who returns to the Austrian team next year after his misadventures in Repsol Honda. 

Images of Takaaki Nakagami: LCR Honda Idemitsu.