Photo by Gold & Goose Photography/LAT Images

Somkiat Chantra will leave MotoGP after just a year on the grid, yet his 2025 season with LCR Honda will not be remembered as the worst campaign by a rookie to date.

Honda elected to promote Chantra from Moto2 for the 2025 MotoGP season after Ai Ogura rejected a ride with the Japanese brand’s satellite crew, LCR, in favour of joining Trackhouse Aprilia. But Chantra failed to show Honda enough to merit another year in the field in 2026.

Instead, Honda have now confirmed that Chantra will move across to World Superbike with their factory team in 2026, partnering with Jake Dixon as the British Moto2 rider also heads for WSBK. It is expected that Moto2 title hopeful Diogo Moreira will replace Chantra at LCR.

Chantra has lost his seat on the MotoGP grid, having only scored three points before Honda confirmed his move to their World Superbike team in 2026. The 26-year-old has since taken his tally of points to six across 13 rounds after a premier class career-best P13 at Mandalika.

Injuries have ruled Chantra out of five rounds this year, but his performances when fit never showed Honda enough. Additionally, Honda disregarded Chantra’s data from an early stage, as the Thai rider regularly being massively off the pace offered the Japanese brand no value.

Photo by Stephen Blackberry/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Bryan Staring’s 2013 rookie MotoGP season was worse than Somkiat Chantra’s 2025 campaign

But Chantra’s rookie MotoGP season with LCR Honda in 2025 has not been worse than the rookie campaign that Bryan Staring produced for Honda Gresini in 2013. Like Chantra will, the Australian also lasted just one year in the premier class, having only scored two points.

READ MORE: Everything to know about Somkiat Chantra from career to height

Staring secured a shock switch to MotoGP for the 2013 season, despite only ever entering one 125cc round before debuting in the premier class. He also only contested his first, and only, Moto2 race in 2018 while standing in for the injured Bo Bendsneyder at Phillip Island.

Gresini welcomed Staring to MotoGP straight from the 2012 Superstock 1,000 series. The Perth native had also only ever contested four World Superbike races before his surprising switch to MotoGP, which ultimately preceded a return to WSBK in the second half of 2014.

Bryan Staring only scored two points through his 18 races as a MotoGP rider

So, it was almost to be expected that Staring would struggle in MotoGP, which he certainly did. The Australian only ever secured one point-scoring finish with P14 in the 2013 Catalan Grand Prix, when he finished 110.745 seconds off the lead as Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo won.

**READ MORE: **Everything to know about Honda from the MotoGP team’s riders to leadership

Photo by Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images

To add to Staring’s woes as a rookie, he was disqualified at Phillip Island. Staring and factory Honda rookie rider Marc Marquez were disqualified from the 2013 Australian Grand Prix, as they both failed to follow the maximum run of 10 laps allowed on one set of tyres that day.

It was the lowest moment of a miserable rookie campaign, which ultimately failed to secure Staring a second term in MotoGP. His average Grand Prix finishing position was P18.6 across 13 finishes from 18 races. He retired on debut in Qatar, plus in France, Germany and Britain.

Staring showed far more potential in his earlier years racing on production bikes in his native Australia. The Perth native, who was 25 years old when he joined MotoGP, made history as the first rider to win a title in each of the Australian 125GP, Supersport and Superbike series.

His first championship success came in the 2004 Australian 125GP Championship, before he later secured the 2009 Australian Supersport title and the Australian Superbike title in 2010. A switch to the FIM Superstock 1,000 Championship followed in 2011, plus MotoGP in 2013.