The LCR Honda MotoGP team has unveiled the second of its two challengers for the 2021 season for, sporting a largely unchanged paint scheme for Takaaki Nakagami.
The Japanese racer’s RC213-V will once again display the red and white colours of title sponsor Idemitsu that has backed the three-time Moto2 race winner since 2014.
LCR and Nakagami have run a very similar livery across his first three seasons as a MotoGP rider, with the main changes this year coming from Idemitsu’s new logo that the Japanese petroleum company switched to this year.
The ’21 campaign will also mark the first time Nakagami enjoys a current spec Honda, having competed with a year old machine up to this up to this point in his premier class career, scoring a best result of fourth so far.
He looked set to break his top class rostrum duck at several points during his ultra consistent ’20 campaign, losing out on a likely runners-up result in the Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring after a red flag scuppered his chances due to him running out of new tyres.
He looked good for a possible first victory in the Alcaniz GP at Aragon following a first ever pole position the previous day, though he let the pressure get to him and crashed out of the contest just five corners in, making the same error while trying to pass Pol Espargaro’s KTM for third at Valencia just a few weeks later.
Nakagami put his change in form down to implementing several aspects of lead Honda ace Marc Marquez’s riding style in order to make the most of the RC213-V’s potential, putting him in great stead to establish himself at the forefront of the MotoGP field in conjunction with finally having a latest-spec bike at his disposal.
The Lucio Ceccinello run-outfit heads into its 16th year of premier class competition looking to return to the podium after not achieving the feat for the first time since ’14 last season, with a grand total of 14 rostrums having been collected across this period-including three victories for recently departed pilot Cal Crutchlow.
