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Honda 2010 Motorsports Overview - Malcolm - 23-02-2010
February 19, 2010 – In its motorsports activities, the symbol of Honda's challenging spirit, the company has aimed for the world's top level from the days of its founding and taken on challenges in a variety of racing categories. Last year marked Honda's 50th anniversary of first racing at the Isle of Man TT, in the Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix (WGP). With the know-how and challenging spirit cultivated in its motorsports activities, Honda will develop activities to meet more customers' expectations. The company will bring joy to customers in each racing category and share with them the dreams and excitement generated by these activities.
Motorsports Strategy
Motorcycle activities.
In the MotoGP, the premier class of the Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix (WGP), the Repsol Honda factory team will compete with two riders: Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso, while the satellite team will enter three teams with four riders. Their machine, the RC212V has been matured to develop a more highly competitive model. Through improvement of both team structure and machines, Honda will take on the challenge of winning all three championship titles, capturing the rider's title as well as the team and constructor's.
The Moto2 class has been established as a new WGP racing category this season. Honda will participate in this category as the sole official engine supplier. Honda will supply all teams with engines developed exclusively for the Moto2 class but derived from the in-line 4-cylinder engine of Honda's commercially sold, supersports model CBR600RR.
Repsol Montesa Honda will compete in the World Trial Championship Series (WCT), entering two Honda riders in this class: Toni Bou, who puts up an impressive set of skills, and Takahisa Fujinami, a veteran Japanese rider. Honda aims to capture both the rider's and manufacturer's titles as it did last season.
Honda will carry out a wide range of racing activities that include Suzuka 8hours Endurance Road Race, all categories of the All-Japan Championship Series, and international championships, and compete in each race aiming for the highest height.
FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix
MotoGP class
Once again this year, Honda will compete in the MotoGP class, the premier class of the Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix (WGP)-the world's top-level race-and take on challenges with the aim of winning all three championship titles, recapturing the rider's title as well as the team and constructor's.
The Repsol Honda factory team will compete with two riders: the veteran Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso, who is in his second year as a factory rider. The team has made some personnel changes to augment its total power for winning these championship titles. Kazuhiko Yamano (HRC*2), who has served as Team Manager, will take over as HRC Team Director and oversee all operations including the factory teams and satellite teams. For the factory team, Toshiyuki Yamaji (HRC) will become the new Team Manager and will direct the entire Repsol Honda team. To enhance the riders' potential, Alberto Puig (Spain), who formerly served as crew chief, has been appointed as the Pedrosa Team Manager for this season. For the Dovizioso team, Gianni Berti (Italy), another former crew chief, has been appointed as the Dovizioso Team Manager. In this way, Honda will strengthen its organization as it seeks to regain the championship titles this season.
Three teams and four riders will compete for the satellite teams. Hiroshi Aoyama of the Interwetten Honda MotoGP team, who won the championship brilliantly in last year's 250cc Grand Prix, has stepped up to the premier class and will be the only Japanese rider to compete in this class this season. Also competing will be the Italian rider Marco Simoncelli of Team San Carlo Honda Gresini, who rode in the 250cc class last year and fought for the championship with Hiroshi Aoyama up to the final race. These two riders will be competing in the MotoGP class as rookies from Honda. Simoncelli will be joined by teammate Marco Melandri, who is returning to Honda this season. The veteran rider Randy De Puniet will participate again from LCR Honda MotoGP, aiming for a top position.
HRC plans to race six RC212V machines in this class under the guidance of Grand Prix Technical Director Shinichi Kokubu (Honda R&D*3). With the 2010 RC212V, Honda has developed a highly competitive racing machine by adding numerous improvements to the engine while redesigning the chassis to match the engine characteristics.
Expectations are high for success of the six Honda riders in MotoGP World Championship Round 2, the Grand Prix of Japan (finals), which will be held at Twin Ring Motegi in Tochigi Prefecture this coming April 25.
*1 FIM stands for Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme.
*2 HRC stands for Honda Racing Corporation.
*3 Motorcycle R&D Center, Honda R&D Co., Ltd.
Dani Pedrosa 24 Spain
Andrea Dovizioso 23 Italy
Marco Simoncelli 23 Italy
Marco Melandri 27 Italy
Hiroshi Aoyama 28 Chiba Japan
Randy De Puniet 29 France
Moto2 class
As the sole engine supplier, Honda will participate in the Moto2 class in a new era of the WGP.
The Moto2 class is a new category that has been created to replace the 2-stroke 250cc class. Making its debut in the 2010 season, this class covers engines with intermediate displacement and was formed as a step-up to the MotoGP class. All machines will be equipped with Honda-made 4-stroke 600cc engines. This engine is derived from the in-line 4-cylinder engine of Honda's commercially sold, supersports model CBR600RR and was developed exclusively for the Moto2 class. Honda will supply these engines to all teams for each round of the series, and HRC has signed a maintenance agreement with Geo Technology of Switzerland to support the engine supply for all rounds. The engines will undergo strict inspection and maintenance before arriving at each team, so that every engine can put out the same performance. Tires will also be supplied by a single manufacturer, Dunlop, while manufacturer prototypes will be permitted for the chassis.
Having the engines supplied by a single manufacturer will make the competition among riders and teams even fiercer. The class is expected to attract a lot of attention as a new category that serves as the stepping stone to the premier class. This is the first time for the one-make engine rule to be adopted in the 60-year history of WGP, and by supplying engines to the Moto2 class and strongly supporting WGP as a result, Honda will contribute to the development of two-wheel motorsports.
Two Japanese riders will be racing in this new category: Yuki Takahashi from Tech 3 Racing, who has competed in the MotoGP class before, and Shoya Tomizawa from Technomag-CIP, in his second year of World Grand Prix racing.
GABOR TALMACSI Hungary
ANDREA IANNONE Italy
STEFAN BRADL Germany
JOAN OLIVE Spain
KENNY NOYES USA
ALEX DEBON Spain
AXEL PONS Spain
SERGIO GADEA Spain
FONSI NIETO Spain
YANNICK GUERRA Spain
THOMAS LUTHI Switzerland
RATTHAPARK WILAIROT Thailand
HECTOR FAUBEL Spain
ALEX DE ANGELIS San Marino
NICOLA CANEPA Italy
JULES CLUZEL France
CLAUDIO CORTI Italy
KAREL ABRAHAM Czech
TONI ELIAS Spain
VLADIMIR IVANOV Russia
ALEX BALDOLINI Italy
RAFFAELE DE ROSA Italy
YUKI TAKAHASHI Saitama, Japan
FABRICIO PERREN Argentina
ROBERTINO PIETRI Venezuela
ROBERTO ROLFO Italy
SCOTT REDDING Britain
SHOYA TOMIZAWA Chiba, Japan
DOMINIQUE AEGERTER Switzerland
LUKAS PESEK Czech
VALENTIN DEBISE France
VLADIMIR LEONOV Russia
JULIAN SIMON Spain
MIKE DI MEGLIO France
MATTIA PASINI Italy
BERNAT MARTINEZ Spain
MASHEL AL NAIMI Qatar
Reserve)
VINCENT LONBOIS Belgium
(Reserve)
ANTHONY WEST Australia
• This entry list is provisional and subject to change.
Main Honda teams and riders participating in other overseas championship races
WSB
Four teams and five riders will compete in the World Superbike Championship (WSB), riding on Honda CBR1000RRs. Jonathan Rea will again participate from the private team HANNspree Ten Kate Honda.* As his teammate, we welcome Max Neukirchner with his wealth of experience in WSB. Makoto Tamada, who has been active as a Honda rider in the All Japan Road Race Championship as well as Suzuka 8hours and MotoGP, will also be back with Honda team this season after four years. As a veteran rider who can draw on his cultivated experience, hopes are high for Tamada to rank in a top position at WSB again this season.
Main Honda teams and riders for the World Superbike Championship (WSB)
ECHO CRS Grand Prix* Broc Parkes
Squadra Corse Italia* Vittorio Iannuzzo
Pro-Ride World Superbike Racing Team Makoto Tamada
HANNspree Ten Kate Honda*
Jonathan Rea
Max Neukirchner
* Team supported by Honda Motor Europe (HME)
• This entry list is provisional and subject to change.
WSS
In the World Supersport Championship (WSS), seven Honda teams and 12 riders will participate, competing on the Honda CBR600RR. Eugene Laverty and Kenan Sofuoglu, who turned in excellent results last season, as well as numerous other Honda riders with WSS racing experience will take part. Paola Cazzola of Kuja Racing is the first woman rider to show full participation in WSS. Honda will challenge itself not only to recapture the rider's championship but also to gain its 8th consecutive manufacturer's title.
Main Honda teams and riders for the World Supersport Championship (WSS)
Gino Rea
Massimo Roccoli
Alexander Lundh
Danilo Dell‘Omo
Paola Cazzola
Daniel Bukowski
Eugene Laverty
Miguel Praia
Michele Pirro
Kenan Sofuoglu
Robbin Harms
• This entry list is provisional and subject to change.
BSB
Two riders, Ryuichi Kiyonari and Josh Brookes, will compete in the British Superbike Championship (BSB), as members of HM Plant Honda team of the local subsidiary, Honda U.K. Kiyonari raced in the WSB until last year, but is returning to compete in the BSB starting this season. He took the BSB championships for two consecutive years (2006 and 2007), while his teammate Brookes has been competing as an HM Plant Honda rider since last season. Drawing on his abundant racing experience, Brookes is aiming at the top position in the BSB.
Main Honda teams and riders for the British Superbike Championship (BSB)
HM Plant Honda
4 CBR1000RR Josh Brookes
8 CBR1000RR Ryuichi Kiyonari
• This entry list is provisional and subject to change.