Having felt a lack of factory support from Honda this season, Alex Rins announced a few weeks ago that he would be quitting his HRC deal with LCR a year early and join Yamaha for 2024.
Over the British Grand Prix weekend, Zarco emerged as favourite to replace the Spaniard, with the Frenchman having contested three rounds for LCR at the end of 2019 following his departure from KTM.
Zarco has been a Ducati rider since 2020, after senior management was able to convince him to sign a deal to race for Avintia - a move he was initially reticent to, branding the outfit as "not a top team" and claiming he would have rather returned to Moto2 - before being promoted to Pramac on works machinery for 2021.
Speaking to Autosport's Spanish language counterpart es.motorsport.com, Ducati's sporting director Paolo Ciabatti acknowledged on Saturday from the Red Bull Ring that the intention of Zarco was to ink a two-year deal when the Italian marque only offered one.
"We communicated to Johann that Ducati was interested in him, for one year, to then take him to World SBK," Ciabatti said.
"Then, in his desire to stay in MotoGP, he received a two-year offer from LCR. If you want to stay in MotoGP at all costs because you are 33 years old, and Ducati can only offer you one year, I think it's normal to go the other way."
Source: Autosport