How Ducati rebuilt Zarco into a factory MotoGP rider

The 2020 MotoGP season was full of 'what-ifs', but perhaps the biggest concerned Johann Zarco. What if he had persevered with KTM into the second year of his contract? Could he have done what Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira were able to do and win races?

But this was not the path destined for the Moto2 world champion of 2015 and 2016. Herve Poncharal's decision to promote Zarco to MotoGP in 2017 with his Tech3 team raised some eyebrows, but three podiums on the satellite Yamaha in his debut season had done enough to make him a major player in the 2019 rider market.

Zarco was courted by Honda to join its works team alongside Marc Marquez, but it was ultimately the paycheque and reward for success on the RC16 which lured the Frenchman to KTM for 2019.

His reasoning for the move at that time was sound enough, pointing out: "If you are next to Marc and if you want to win races, you have to be strong like him, maybe stronger. So, this means I must improve a lot my riding style, and then we were thinking if you have this level of riding it means you can be fast with the KTM [also]."

It never quite worked out like that.

The RC16 had a difficult birth, KTM's spearhead Pol Espargaro admitting to Autosport earlier this year that "nothing was working" on the bike when it made its full-time debut in 2017. Although the bike had grown come 2019 and Espargaro could manage consistent top 10 results, adapting to its unconventional-by-modern-MotoGP-standard steel trellis frame and WP suspension from the sweet-handling Yamaha (something Espargaro also had to do) proved extremely tough for Zarco from the get-go in winter testing.

From the 11 races he contested on the KTM in 2019, Zarco breached the top 10 just once, at the Catalan Grand Prix. As his struggles continued and his enjoyment faded, Zarco informed KTM management after its home race at the Red Bull Ring he would be quitting his two-year deal early.

As the mood within the KTM garage remained sullen, KTM decided it was best to cut Zarco loose even earlier, parting ways with immediate effect after the San Marino GP.

Facing an uncertain future, Zarco would race the final three rounds of 2019 in place of an injured Takaaki Nakagami on the year-old LCR Honda. At the time, it was thought this was about HRC evaluating him for a 2020 seat as Jorge Lorenzo's future appeared unlikely to involve riding a Honda for a second season. That, of course, never came to pass as HRC opted for 2019 Moto2 world champion Alex Marquez instead.

Zarco hardly set the world on fire on the Honda, finishing 13th at Phillip Island and crashing out of the Malaysian and Valencia GPs. Nevertheless, there was a desire from Dorna Sports and French GP promoter Claude Michy to keep Zarco on the grid given his better connection to a native audience than rookie Fabio Quartararo in 2019.

It is understood Ducati was willing to oust Danilo Petrucci from his 2020 contract to promote Jack Miller to the works squad, thus clearing a space at Pramac for Zarco. But the money being offered for such a move wouldn't have been enough to cover the legal costs of dropping Petrucci. Given the Italian won a race in 2020, albeit in the wet (ironically at Le Mans) certainly vindicates Ducati's decision.

PLUS: Zarco's MotoGP second chance can prove KTM wrong

"You can surf a bit more on this positive attitude, and then the team enjoys also a lot the way I could adapt. And I think the race in Czech Republic, the pole position and podium just in the third race, really gave me big hopes and big trust in what I could do" Johann Zarco

And so it had to try and convince Zarco to join its ranks at Avintia - a move he shunned when it first emerged, branding the now renamed Esponsorama Racing "not a top team" and preferring a return to Moto2 than a move to the Ducati customer.

Avintia was admittedly something of a questionable outfit, whispers stating 2019 British Superbike Champion Scott Redding turned down an offer to return to MotoGP with Avintia for the Malaysian round in place of Tito Rabat owing to the team's reputation.

But the team has become a serious outfit, 2003 World Superbike title runner-up and ex-MotoGP rider Ruben Xaus turning the team around ahead of 2020, while Ducati strengthened its ties with some technical support. Zarco was ultimately convinced, although for the winter insisted he was a Ducati rider and not an Avintia one.

Zarco did come into 2020 having to "make up for lost time", having missed four crucial days of riding on the GP19 he'd race in November. But from the off it was clear the Desmosedici was suiting him more than the KTM, his debut result of 11th at the Spanish GP four places better than he had managed in Qatar in 2019 on the RC16.

At the second round at Jerez, Zarco bettered his best result from his KTM days with a ninth, before staging a shock run to pole position - his first since Le Mans 2018 - at the Czech GP. Bouncing back from an expertly-taken long lap penalty in the race for a collision with former team-mate Espargaro, Zarco returned to the podium for the first time since 2018 in third.

"The base of the bike... just technically, the base gave me a better confidence immediately," Zarco said when asked by Autosport how Ducati was able to rebuild him in 2020. "And from this, the first step was already positive.

"Then you can surf a bit more on this positive attitude, and then the team enjoys also a lot the way I could adapt. And I think the race in Czech Republic, the pole position and podium just in the third race, really gave me big hopes and big trust in what I could do. I did not repeat it, but at least this third race was a clear vision that we could do something interesting."

Zarco concedes his season from that point was a bit "inconsistent", with his next top five result not coming until the French GP, with a 10th at the Aragon GP, fifth in the Teruel GP, ninth in the European GP, a DNF in the second Valencia race and 10th in Portugal to round out a season he finished 13th overall with 77 points. But he blames this up-and-down form on the lack of testing he had compared to his rivals, which was something exacerbated by the COVID-19 lockdown.

The upheaval in Ducati's line-up for 2021 caused by Andrea Dovizioso's exit opened the door up for a return to being a factory rider for Zarco. Although the Italian marque ultimately opted to put Francesco Bagnaia in its works team alongside Jack Miller, Zarco was still given a factory deal to join Pramac. That, he notes, was mission accomplished.

PLUS: Why the Ducati-Dovizioso divorce was unavoidable

"Since Misano, I'd say it's all positive because the main challenge was to get back at the top level and have a bike for next year and a competitive bike," he said when asked by Autosport how he reflected on his 2020 season. "And since Misano this was done, even if we didn't know if it was factory or Pramac [I would be joining].

"But I was told I'd have the same bike [as the factory team], so I was happy all the same. The official team, the factory has a little bit more prestige, but I know at Pramac I can think about victories and I love this feeling. So, the main target is done, and I almost took the races since Le Mans, or since Aragon, really as a test for next year."

Zarco admits he still has to adapt his riding style more to really suit the Ducati, but this is something possible for a former Yamaha rider to achieve - as Lorenzo can attest to when he made his breakthrough on the bike in 2018 when at the factory squad. While his bike won't be radically different to what he rode this season as a result of a development freeze on engines due to COVID-19, a question mark does remain on how he'll fare on the 2020 evolution bike with the current rear tyre design that both Dovizioso and Petrucci really struggled on this year.

However, Dovizioso always felt Zarco's lack of Ducati experience meant he had no hang-ups from previous years' bikes to throw him off. And given Miller was generally consistent throughout 2020 having had less issues with the tyres, Zarco shouldn't be thrown the major curveball Dovizioso was.

The cards look like they've fallen in his favour for next year to finally get to the top step of the podium. As much as anything, that's testament to Ducati's belief Zarco was a rider worth salvaging after his annus horribilis with KTM

"I can't really say exactly what the difference is [between my current bike and next year's], but on paper there is something better," Zarco notes. "Miller's end of the season makes me think that it can really do well and that I can really feel good on this bike, which is evolved compared to the one I have known this year."

Given how strong Zarco was on the Tech3 Yamaha in 2017 and 2018, tallying up six podiums across both campaigns, it's odd we head to 2021 without him having secured that maiden grand prix victory he's certainly capable of.

With that said, the cards look like they've fallen in his favour for next year to finally get to the top step of the podium. As much as anything, that's testament to Ducati's belief Zarco was a rider worth salvaging after his annus horribilis with KTM. Now Zarco has to go and fully vindicate this, but at least 2020 showed he's on course to do just that.