Honda Sends David Alonso to LCR Beside Johann Zarco

Honda confirmed David Alonso at Pro Honda LCR for 2027, pairing the Colombian with Johann Zarco after promoting Diogo Moreira to the factory team. The move closes Honda’s four-rider plan for the first 850 cc MotoGP season and ends the last open seat on the grid.

Alonso, 20, still races Moto2 with CFMOTO Aspar and sits fifth after 17 rounds. Honda is not handing him the factory box beside Fabio Quartararo. It is handing him Lucio Cecchinello’s satellite team and a veteran who already knows the Honda garage.

Honda Puts Moreira in the Factory and Alonso at LCR

Honda Racing Corporation published the split from Tokyo on October 20, 2026. Moreira, who is 22 and in his first MotoGP year with Pro Honda LCR, will join Quartararo at factory Honda HRC. Zarco stays at Honda LCR. Alonso, now in his second Moto2 season, takes Moreira’s seat there.

That is the HRC rider lineup for the 2027 season in full. Quartararo, the 2021 world champion, already had the factory ride on a two-year deal. The live question was which of the two HRC-contracted young riders would share that box.

HONDA’S FOUR 2027 RIDERS

Honda signed Alonso and Quartararo on the same day in summer, then left Alonso’s team blank for three months. The October note makes the hierarchy plain: the rider who already has premier-class weekends goes to the factory, and the Moto3 champion starts in the satellite box.

A Motegi Sprint Podium Tipped the Factory Seat

HRC’s own briefing on Moreira is a progress report, not a talent contest on paper. In his debut MotoGP season he has scored points in 14 of the first 17 races. On October 3, 2026, at the Japanese Grand Prix, he finished second in the Sprint at Motegi, Honda’s home round.

Pro Honda LCR’s own thank-you note puts him on 74 points across those 17 Grands Prix, with several top-10 finishes around that Motegi result. Honda’s rider file lists him 15th in the championship after 17 rounds, ahead of Zarco (17th) in the same LCR operation.

Moreira arrived in MotoGP as the 2025 Moto2 world champion, on an HRC contract that already sat above a pure LCR deal. Yuzuru Ishikawa, general manager of HRC’s motorcycle racing division, said Moreira has always adapted to new bikes quickly, from motocross through Moto3 and Moto2 into MotoGP, and that HRC wants him in the next step of the plan to fight for the title again.

A satellite first season is the usual way a rookie learns this class without factory pressure, and Moreira has now used that year as a springboard. Honda is paying out that logic in public: the Brazilian who has already raced the current Honda keeps the factory data stream beside Quartararo, while Alonso is asked to learn the premier class in Cecchinello’s garage.

What the LCR Garage Offers a MotoGP Rookie

Alonso treated the LCR seat as a place to learn, not as a holding pattern. His first words for the team put the adaptation first.

I’m incredibly excited and can’t wait to make the step up to MotoGP with a team like Honda LCR. They are a highly professional team with a wealth of experience, and I believe it’s the perfect place to start my MotoGP adaptation and learning process. It’s an important step, and I can’t wait to begin this new adventure. A dream come true, and this is only the beginning.

David Alonso, incoming Pro Honda LCR rider, team announcement

Cecchinello said the team was proud to welcome him for 2027, citing talent, speed and determination, and tying the signing to the new rules era rather than to a short one-year look. The LCR account posted the welcome the same morning.

2027 destination: Honda LCR 🛬

Welcome onboard, David! 🇨🇴

Let's enjoy the ride in #MotoGP! ✊💨 pic.twitter.com/TRiOWsGLQK

— LCR Team (@lcr_team) October 20, 2026

WHAT ALONSO WALKS INTO

• The teammate: Johann Zarco, a two-time Moto2 world champion, stays in the same box after a 2026 season interrupted by injury.
• The bike: Honda’s July text said Quartararo and Alonso will race HRC’s all-new MotoGP machine with Zarco and Moreira, so the 850 cc reset is shared across both Honda entries.
• The contract: HRC and Alonso signed a multi-year contract beginning in 2027, announced on July 21, 2026, with the team name added only now.
• The flag: Alonso was born in Madrid on April 25, 2006, holds dual nationality, and races under the Colombian flag, the first Colombian on a MotoGP grid since Yonny Hernandez.

He still has Moto2 work to finish before any of that starts. Aspar remains his home through the rest of 2026, including the Australian round at Phillip Island from October 23 to 25.

Zarco Remains the Reference in Cecchinello’s Box

Zarco is 36, born in Cannes on July 16, 1990, and he is the only Honda rider of the four who has already lived through long stretches of a difficult RC213V. Honda’s file lists him as the 2015 and 2016 Moto2 champion and a regular premier-class points scorer, fifth in MotoGP as recently as 2023, then 17th after 17 rounds of 2026 after a crash in Barcelona and a recovery that kept him off the grid for several races.

Cal Crutchlow filled that LCR seat in Germany, Brno, Assen and elsewhere while Zarco rehabbed. The Frenchman did not need surgery, and Honda has now confirmed he continues at LCR into the new rules year. He is the garage’s memory, and Alonso is being asked to take data from him rather than from a factory engineer-first environment.

That pairing is the other half of Honda’s wager. Quartararo, 27, arrives from Yamaha as a former champion who can set a development direction at HRC. Moreira brings current Honda mileage. Zarco brings years of the same factory’s problems. Alonso brings the junior-class record and a brief that starts with learning how a 850 cc prototype stops, turns and uses a new tyre.

From a Record Moto3 Year to Fifth in Moto2

Honda’s October briefing on Alonso is cooler than the 2024 highlight reel. In his second Moto2 season he has one victory, one second place and two third places, has finished in the top nine in 12 of the first 17 races, and stands fifth. Independent race tallies put him on 166 points after the Indonesian round at Mandalika.

That is a long way from the year that made the contract possible. Alonso’s official MotoGP rider file records a 2024 Moto3 title sealed at the Japanese Grand Prix, built on a 14-win season with CFMOTO Aspar, after a 2023 rookie full year that ended third. He then won as a Moto2 rookie in 2025 and finished ninth in that championship.

ALONSO’S PATH TO THE PREMIER CLASS

1. April 25, 2006: Born in Madrid; races as Colombian, number 80, 162 cm and 55 kg.
2. 2023: First full Moto3 season with GASGAS Aspar, finishes third.
3. 2024: Moto3 world champion with CFMOTO Aspar after 14 victories.
4. 2025: Steps to Moto2 with Aspar, takes a first win in the class and finishes ninth.
5. 2026: Second Moto2 year, fifth after 17 rounds with one win, one second and two thirds.
6. July 21, 2026: HRC announces a multi-year MotoGP deal, with no team named.
7. October 20, 2026: Pro Honda LCR is named as the 2027 destination, with Zarco as teammate.

LCR and the championship both cite 20 victories and 32 podiums across four championship seasons. Those four seasons are 2023 through 2026. The two earlier wildcard Moto3 starts in 2021 and 2022 do not sit in that tally.

The Moto2 year is the awkward middle of the bet. Alonso has the speed to win in the class, and he has also lost time in crashes, including a hard Mandalika fall that ended a remote title hope. Honda still used the words “consistent speed” in its October file. It did not use them to put him next to Quartararo.

850cc Rules Meet a Closed 22-Rider Grid

Honda’s October release and its July signing note both tie this rider shuffle to the 2027 technical reset. Engine capacity falls from 1,000 cc to 850 cc, with a wide set of other machine and sporting changes. The class also switches its control tyre to Pirelli, which already supplies Moto2 and Moto3, and the 2027 package drops ride-height devices.

THE 2027 HONDA BET IN BRIEF

• The engines: Capacity drops from 1,000 cc to 850 cc, the central change Honda names in both rider releases.
• The tyres: Pirelli takes over from Michelin as the sole MotoGP supplier, so every 2027 chassis is being drawn around a new construction.
• The grid: Eleven teams and 22 riders are now named, with the confirmed 2027 MotoGP rider line-up locked after Alonso’s LCR seat.
• The Honda split: Quartararo and Moreira at the factory, Zarco and Alonso at LCR, all four on HRC’s new machine.

Ishikawa said Honda has a competitive lineup across Honda HRC Castrol and LCR, and that these riders will push each other on track and help HRC’s engineers make the best bike of the new era. That is the wager without the marketing. Moreira has already started that engineering conversation. Alonso has not.

Alonso still has Moto2 races left, starting with Australia from October 23 to 25, before any 850 cc Honda laps. The LCR seat is his 2027 job. The factory seat went to the rider who already did the first year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Team Will David Alonso Ride for in MotoGP in 2027?

Pro Honda LCR, the Honda satellite run by team principal and CEO Lucio Cecchinello. The squad is based in Monaco and has been on the Grand Prix grid since 1996, and Alonso’s teammate there is Johann Zarco.

When Did Honda First Sign David Alonso for MotoGP?

Honda Racing Corporation announced the deal on July 21, 2026, the same day it named Fabio Quartararo for the factory team on a two-year contract. The July text put Alonso on a multi-year HRC deal from 2027 and did not name LCR or the factory, which is why the team only became public on October 20, 2026.

How Many Grand Prix Wins Did Alonso Take in His Moto3 Title Year?

He won 14 of 20 races in the 2024 Moto3 season and took seven pole positions on the way to the championship with CFMOTO Aspar. Those 14 wins sit inside a career total of 20 Grand Prix victories and 32 podiums across Moto3 and Moto2.

Has Colombia Had a MotoGP Rider Before David Alonso?

Yonny Hernandez raced in the premier class from 2012 to 2016, starting 87 Grands Prix with teams including Avintia, Paul Bird, Pramac and Aspar. His best results were fifth places at the Qatar and German Grands Prix in 2015 on a Ducati.

What Bike Number Does David Alonso Use?

He races as number 80. That number is on his current CFMOTO Aspar Moto2 Kalex and is the one attached to his championship rider file through the Moto3 title year and both Moto2 seasons.

Alonso’s first job is still the Moto2 field at Phillip Island. The LCR Honda, and the 850 cc bike Honda has not yet raced in anger, wait until that championship is done.