MotoGP: Alex Rins and Takaaki Nakagami unveil 2023 LCR Honda liveries

Alex Rins and Takaaki Nakagami have unveiled their respective LCR Honda liveries ahead of the 2023 MotoGP season.

Rins takes over from Alex Marquez on the Givi / Castrol side of the garage, meaning that his bike features red, green, blue and white design.

• Repsol Honda’s 2023 livery unveiled

In a unique launch titled ‘The Power of Dreams’, the 27-year-old’s bike presentation followed a video package which showed Rins having a nightmare where he was delivered boxes of parts by team boss Lucio Cecchinello in order for him to build his own RC213V. Rins was then woken by a phone call from Cecchinello, informing him that his bike was ready for him to come and see.

Rins switches to Honda following Suzuki’s withdrawal from MotoGP, and has only ever raced the GSX-RR since making his premier class debut in 2017. During that time, he won five times and secured a total of 17 podiums.

The Spaniard will have a 2023-spec bike but has a big job on his hands given that Honda have failed to win a race in two of the last three seasons. The RC213V was the only bike not to win a race in 2022.

Meanwhile, Nakagami’s bike remains in the red, black, white and gold colours of Idemitsu for a sixth consecutive season. Following the same suit as Rins earlier in the day, Nakagami’s video presentation saw the Japanese rider travel back in time to 1953, where his new bike was actually a Honda Cub.

2023 is a critical year for Nakagami’s MotoGP career. He missed three races with a hand injury following a collision with Marc Marquez at Aragon last season, and only finished inside the top 10 on three occasions.

In the last two seasons Nakagami has accumulated a total of 122 points, which is only six more than he collected in the shortened 14-race 2020 season. That season saw Nakagami take pole at Aragon, only to crash on the opening lap whilst leading the race.

It’s believed that Moto2 star Ai Ogura could take over from Nakagami in 2024 should he not take a step forward this season.

Both riders will be back on track this weekend at Portimao for the final pre-season test. The opening round takes place at the Portuguese circuit on March 24-26.