NEIL HODGSON SAYS DAVID ALONSO DOESN’T DESERVE HONDA FACTORY SEAT OVER DIOGO MOREIRA

David Alonso’s future in MotoGP is still taking shape after he signed a factory Honda contract for 2027, but the Colombian has not yet confirmed which team he will ride for next season. The deal is understood to be with HRC directly, and it was previously expected that Alonso would join the Honda factory project alongside Fabio Quartararo. However, reports from the paddock suggest Honda could change course and instead promote Diogo Moreira from LCR to the main factory team for 2027.

Moreira’s potential promotion is tied to HRC’s desire to keep developing the Brazilian, who would have completed one MotoGP season by the time 2027 arrives. If Honda does indeed move Moreira up, the likely knock-on effect would be that Alonso ends up at LCR, where he would ride with Johann Zarco.

Neil Hodgson, speaking during FP2 at the Austrian GP on TNT Sports 2, questioned whether Alonso should be placed in the factory team environment immediately. Hodgson said he would prefer Moreira for the factory seat, arguing that the Portuguese rider has already earned the step through his recent progression. “I think I’d go with Moreira, having done a full year in MotoGP, got that bit of experience,” Hodgson said. He added: “Moreira won the Moto2 world championship, then was promoted up to MotoGP.”

Hodgson also suggested Alonso has not yet shown enough to justify a direct move into one of Honda’s top factory main-team slots. “Doesn’t look like David Alonso is going to win the title, does it? He’s quite a way back,” he said, before adding: “So I don’t really think he’s done enough.”

He further argued that riders coming straight from the intermediate ranks into a full factory team are rare, and that Alonso may benefit more from a lower-pressure setting first. “There’s not many riders [that] come from the intermediate class into one of the absolute full factory main teams, and I don’t think he quite deserves it, Alonso,” Hodgson said. “As much as I still rate him, of course, I think he’d be better off in the less-pressured outfit of LCR.”

Hodgson also addressed a paddock rumour that Honda is trying to broker an arrangement that would place Alonso in LCR while moving Moreira into the factory team. He said the situation may be complicated by the wording of Alonso’s contract, which appears to guarantee a factory role. “The vibe in the paddock is … that’s what they want to do. They want to put Alonso in LCR, Moreira in the main factory team,” Hodgson explained. “But Alonso’s got a contract, and it sounds like the wording is that he will be in the factory team, and I think they’re trying to somehow come to some sort of agreement. That’s a ‘rumour’, I don’t know if that’s correct.”