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Honda 2020 Motorsports Program Overview
TOKYO, Jan 10, 2020 - (JCN Newswire) - Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced its motorsports activities for the 2020 season and initiatives to expand the popularity of motorsports.
Since the days of its early period, Honda has been enhancing its technologies and human resources, and sharing the fun, joy and inspirational experiences with the fans and customers by competing in various races.
In 2020, Honda will continue to compete in the most prestigious motorcycle and automobile races in the world, including plans to compete in various races around the world. Everyone involved in Honda motorsports activities, including riders, drivers, engineers, mechanics and other team members, will work as one "Team Honda" and compete with full force.
Motorcycle Activities
In the 2019 season, Honda won the championship in the premier classes of FIM(1) Grand Prix World Championship, FIM Motocross World Championship and FIM Trial World Championship.
In the 2020 season, Honda will compete with the factory teams of Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) and strive to win the championship in all three categories - road race, motocross and trial--for the second consecutive year. Moreover, as with previous years, the HRC factory team is currently participating in the Dakar Rally which moved its route from South America to Saudi Arabia this year.
In the MotoGP class of the FIM Grand Prix World Championship, Marc Marquez, the six-time World Champion who won the championship in 2019 for the fourth consecutive year, will welcome Alex Marquez, the 2019 Moto2 Class Champion, to the Repsol Honda Team. With this new team structure, Honda will strive to capture the MotoGP "Triple Crown" for the fourth consecutive year.
In the FIM Superbike World Championship, Honda will compete with a new HRC factory team, Team HRC, with two riders, namely Alvaro Bautista and Leon Haslam, and with a new machine developed based on all-new CBR1000RR-R FIREBLADE SP.
In the MFJ All-Japan Championship, Honda will compete at the top class of the three categories, namely Road Race Championship (JRR), Motocross Championship (JMX) and Trial Championship (JTR) and strive to win consecutive championship titles in Motocross and Trial and regain the Road Race championship title to capture all three MFJ All-Japan Championship titles for the first time since 2017.
Moreover, Honda will continue to foster young riders. In road racing, in conjunction with Honda racing activities in Asia where people's interest in motorcycle racing is growing rapidly, Honda strives to help young riders in this region to realize their dreams of competing in the MotoGP class. For the 2019 season, Honda will continue to support Honda Team Asia, which will compete in the Moto2 and Moto3 classes of MotoGP. Moreover, as an opportunity for young riders to step up, Honda will continue supporting riders competing in the FIM CEV Repsol Moto3 Junior World Championship. In addition, Honda will continue to utilize IDEMITSU Asia Talent Cup (IATC) as a program designed to foster young riders to discover and foster more riders who can compete in world-class races.
In motocross racing, Honda will continue to host training sessions in Japan for team riders competing in the MFJ All-Japan Motocross Championship. Moreover, Honda also will continue its talent fostering programs which include providing opportunities for young riders with future potential to join training camps around the world and compete in MXGP races.
Automobile Activities
In the FIA(2) Formula One World Championship (F1) where Honda competes as a power unit (PU) supplier, Honda won three race championships in the 2019 season. In the 2020 season, Honda will strive to win more races while continuing to supply power units with the same specifications to Scuderia AlphaTauri(3) and Red Bull Racing.
In addition, Honda will continue to support challenges taken by young Japanese drivers by enabling them to compete in the FIA Formula 2 Championship (F2) and the French F4 Championship operated by FFSA(4) Academy.
In Japan, Honda will strive to recapture the championship in the most prestigious races by introducing an all-new NSX-GT to the GT500 class of the SUPER GT Series, which will adopt new technical regulations in the 2020 season, and by changing the structure of teams competing in the Japanese SUPER FORMULA Championship.
As for customer racing, in the race categories which feature machines based on mass-market models, Honda will take on challenges with each team by not only supplying machines, but also strengthening its support for the team so that each team can race more competitively.
Honda will supply CIVIC Type R-based racing machines, CIVIC TCR, for the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) which started in 2018 and the TCR series endurance races, which have been popular all around the world. Moreover, Honda will supply the NSX GT3 Evo to the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) which will be held on five continents as well as other GT championships and endurance races held in North America, Asia and Europe.
In North America, through Honda Performance Development (HPD), Honda will supply engines to 5 teams 13 cars which will compete in the IndyCar Series.
(1) FIM: Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme
(2) FIA: Federation Internationale de l'Automobile
(3) Renamed from Scuderia Toro Rosso
(4) FFSA: Federation Francaise du Sport Automobile
Source: Honda Motor Co, Ltd
Sectors: Automotive
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