Takaaki Nakagami has decided that it is time for a change in his career for the 2025 season.
At the end of the 2024 MotoGP season, Takaaki Nakagami will end his career as a MotoGP rider. Nakagami will switch to a development rider in Japan for HRC in 2025 beginning his time as a test rider.
Nakagami has spent the last seven years as the LCR Honda IDEMITSU rider. Throughout his MotoGP career, the 32-year-old failed to claim a podium but did get a pole position in 2020 at Aragon.
Before the 2024 Aragon Grand Prix Nakagami spoke to MotoGP.com about his new role:
"It was really difficult to decide after seven years with the LCR MotoGP Team," Nakagami said. "Of course, I have great memories with this team and all the team members. It was really tough but in the end, I decided that it was time to change. It is the right time to change my life to be a test rider next season with HRC.
"This is a great opportunity for me," Nakagami stated. "I am happy for myself and Chantra also. I will be the developing test rider next season, we have a plan to test many things in Japan and Europe and a couple of races as a wildcard. But I am still not sure how many races, but this is the plan so I have not completely stopped, something more like changing jobs."
Nakagami was further asked about whether he decided to leave LCR Honda or whether Honda decided. The Japanese rider believes that it is time for him to start thinking about his future:
"In the end, I had to decide for myself, and it was not easy. I said to HRC's guys 'Give me a couple of days or a couple of weeks as this is not easy'. But in the end, I was thinking about my future as I am not 20 years old, I am already 32.
"I started to think about my future and this offer was really great for me, and why not take it? For a couple of years, I will keep riding, keep testing and keep fit to show them that I still have speed. The main target is developing and making the bike faster and to bring Honda back on top."
