TOKYO, Jan 10, 2025 - (JCN Newswire) - Honda announced its motorsports participation plans for the 2025 season.

Since first entering the Isle of Man TT races in 1959, with company founder Soichiro Honda’s passion to become the world’s number one in technology, Honda has continued to participate in various motorcycle and automobile races around the world. Many riders and drivers from yesteryear have competed on the world stage, and no matter how many times they have faced challenges, have overcome and accumulated victories by pushing on, undaunted. In 2025, Honda will continue to strengthen this challenging spirit and develop motorsports activities with the riders, drivers, and people who fight alongside Honda.

Motorcycle motorsports activities

In 2024, Honda won the Dakar Rally 2024, a world championship in which it competes as a factory team, for the first time in three years, and also won the Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Road Race for the third consecutive year. It also won both the FIM*1 Trial World Championship and the FIM X-Trial World Championship, setting a new record of 36 consecutive titles over both series. On the other hand, Honda had a difficult year in the MotoGP class of the FIM Road Racing World Championship.

For 2025 in the MotoGP class, Honda will further strengthen its development system, including testing, in order to break out of its current situation. 2024 MotoGP riders Takaaki Nakagami and Aleix Espargaró will join the development team to accelerate development to enhance the RC213V’s competitiveness. The factory team will be named “Honda HRC” and will field two RC213Vs. For the satellite teams, Honda LCR will continue to race in 2025.In the FIM Superbike World Championship, the factory team Honda HRC will continue to compete with two upgraded and more competitive CBR1000RR-R FIREBLADE SP racing bikes.

In the FIM Motocross World Championship, Honda will aim to regain the championship title in the MXGP class for the first time in three years through enhancing the competitiveness of the CRF450R and the team.In the FIM Trial World Championship TrialGP class and FIM X-Trial World Championship, Toni Bou will aim to extend his record to 19th consecutive victories in both championships. Honda is also striving for back-to-back championships in the Dakar Rally 2025 currently being held in Saudi Arabia.

Honda aims to achieve carbon neutrality in all of its motorcycle products in the 2040s, and while continuing to work on the evolution of the internal combustion engine (ICE), is also working on the electrification of motorcycles as a key element of its future environmental strategy. In motorsports, last year Honda participated in the FIM E-Xplorer World Cup with the CR ELECTRIC PROTO. In addition, it entered three rounds of the MFJ*2 All Japan Trial Championship as a wildcard entry with the RTL ELECTRIC. Its development rider Takahisa Fujinami took three consecutive wins.The RTL ELECTRIC will compete on a new stage in 2025, in the Trial World Championship Trial2 class.

Automobile motorsports activities

In 2024, Honda provided technical and marketing support to Oracle Red Bull Racing (RBR) and Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team (RB) as team partners in the FIA*3 Formula One World Championship (F1). Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) provided technical support by manufacturing power unit (PU) components other than the ESS*4, which were supplied to Red Bull Powertrains*5, and supporting PU operations throughout the season, thus contributing to Max Verstappen’s fourth consecutive Drivers' Championship title.The partnership between RBR, RB, and Honda, which set a new record in F1 history with 21 wins in the 22 races in the 2023 season, is entering its final year. In 2025, HRC will do its utmost to help win the championship together with the teams. HRC will also continue to support the activities of Yuki Tsunoda, who is entering his fifth year in F1.

In Japan domestic racing, in 2024, DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING, with drivers Tadasuke Makino and Kakunoshin Ohta, won the Teams’ Championship in the Japanese SUPER FORMULA Championship with four wins. In 2025, the team will continue to fight for the top, including the Driver's Championship. In the SUPER GT Series*6, Honda introduced the new CIVIC TYPE R-GT based on the CIVIC TYPE R in the GT500 class, resulting in STANLEY TEAM KUNIMITSU's Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino finishing 2024 in second place in the standings. They will continue their challenge to win the championship in 2025. In addition, Shun Koide, who won the Japanese SUPER FORMULA LIGHTS Championship (SUPER FORMULA LIGHTS), will be racing in the GT500 class with Astemo REAL RACING.

In North America, Honda Racing Corporation USA (HRC US) will supply power units to five teams competing in the IndyCar Series. In addition, two Acura-branded ARX-06 cars supplied by HRC US will compete in the GTP class, the pinnacle category in the IMSA*7 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. HRC US engineers will take on a major part of the team operations for the #93 car, expanding the role of HRC US and accelerating both human resource and technical development. In addition, driver Kakunoshin Ohta will participate in three events with the team, including the 24 Hours of Daytona.

(1) FIM: Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme
(2) MFJ: Motorcycle Federation of Japan
(3) FIA: Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
(4) ESS: Energy Storage System, a battery system that stores regenerated electrical energy.
(5) Manufacturer of PUs for Red Bull Group F1 teams. Conducts ESS production and operation for current PUs.
(6) Supervised and operated by GTA Co., Ltd.
(7) IMSA: International Motor Sports Association

For more information, visit https://global.honda/en/newsroom/news/2025/c250110eng.html. 

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