Takaaki Nakagami will leave LCR Honda and the MotoGP grid at the end of this season to take on a new role as a development rider for Honda Racing Corporation (HRC). His departure from LCR Honda makes way for Somkiat Chantra to join the team.
In his new position, Nakagami will be tasked with enhancing Honda’s testing team in Japan starting in 2025. He will also serve as a crucial link between the testing teams in Japan and Europe, facilitating the sharing of results to accelerate the development of Honda’s bikes.
Having a long-standing relationship with Honda, Nakagami joined their Asian rider development program, Idemitsu Honda Team Asia, in 2014. He progressed from Moto2 to MotoGP in 2018, where he consistently rode for the LCR Honda satellite team. Nakagami is the only Japanese rider to have reached 100 MotoGP races.
Koji Watanabe, President of Honda Racing Corporation, said: ‘I would like to thank Takaaki Nakagami for all his hard work over the past 15 years competing in the Grand Prix World Championship. I am very proud of his achievements with Honda, as he was the first Japanese rider to compete in more than 114 races over 7 seasons in the MotoGP class, and claim pole positions as well. This has been the toughest season Honda and HRC have experienced, and in order to improve this situation as quickly as possible, we need to further strengthen our development system. I have high expectations for the experience and skills of Nakagami, who has competed in the premier class’.