Honda’s factory MotoGP riders Joan Mir and Luca Marini pulled the covers off their largely-unchanged 2026 RC213V machine on Monday evening at Sepang ahead of this week’s first official test of the year.
But despite Honda’s best efforts, attention was firmly focused not on the two current racers but on who might be taking at least one of their seats in 2027.
That’s because, as well as the final team launch of the season, Monday also gave the media the first chance to grill Fabio Quartararo on his plans, only days after rumours suggested that he had already ditched Yamaha for Honda - rumours that he was quick to deny when questioned about them.
“The only thing that I can confirm today is that we are talking to teams,” he insisted, “and Honda is one of them. But I have nothing signed yet.
“I am not going to tell you everything, but of course we are talking to many teams and we will consider not soon or very soon, because I will take the time I need to make the decision for 2027, but nothing is done and signed yet.”
It comes as others in the paddock also roll back rumours about their future, with Albert Valera, manager of both Jorge Martin and Pedro Acosta, insisting to German publication Speedweek that rumours linking his riders respectively to Yamaha (in Quartararo’s place) and Ducati (to replace Pecco Bagnaia) were also only rumours and that nothing was even close to being signed as of yet.
Yet while according to Quartararo there might still be not one but two open spaces at Honda, at least for the time being, it didn’t stop the gossip linking him to the team from being the main talking point of Honda’s launch, presenting as it did the first chance of the year for the media to also grill Marini and Mir on their futures.
“I think everyone is speaking a lot on the media side,” Marini told journalists, “but also on the rider side.
“Every rider wants to be in the perfect position in 2027, and it’s not easy to understand which one will be the perfect one because everything is going to change [with MotoGP’s new rules].
“But I am constantly talking with Honda, with the Japanese [bosses]. We have a fantastic relationship, and I think still everyone has a lot of time with these things. The 2026 season hasn’t even started yet.
“There’s been a lot of speculation so far, but I think this is because everyone was bored at home and wanted to start the fire a little bit! Now that we will have some technical topics after the test, this will go away.”
However, while Marini might be confident that time is still on his side, that’s not the impression of the other side of the garage, where 2020 world champion Mir sounds like he’s feeling the pressure more than his team-mate.
“The truth is that every time you start to speak about new contracts,” he begrudgingly admitted, “it’s earlier and earlier. There’s no limit about it, and I think someone has started to speak in November.
“In my case, this means that everyone cannot sleep, because you don’t want to be without a seat.
“But I want to see things to make a decision. It’s something that if you don’t wait, exaggerate a little this procedure, then you can take a decision that is also not the right one. But you have to take it because everyone is taking it.
“We will try to play our cards, but I don’t know what I want to do. That’s my decision at the moment. It’s true that I see an improvement from Honda, from their project in the past years. I’ve been onboard in difficult times, and you could see last year when I was on the podium I celebrated like a championship.
“Making a good result with them, the flavour is different.”
All of this comes in the context of a highly successful few days of testing for Honda at Sepang during the showdown outing that precedes the main test.
No longer able to take part with Mir and Marini thanks to losing the lowest tier of concession status last season, Honda was on track with test rider Aleix Espargaro - who has been insisting so far that the new for 2026 Honda RC213V is the best MotoGP machine he has ever ridden, something that Mir and Marini will be able to analyse on Tuesday when they also get to take to the track.
