Official representative of Honda in the Superbike World Championship in 2019, in association with Althea, Midori Moriwaki (photo above) allowed Leon Camier to finish seventeenth at the end of the season, ahead of Alessandro Delbianco and Ryuichi Kiyonari, all three on Fireblade.
This year, HRC officially engages with Alvaro Bautista et Leon Haslam, while Moriwaki theoretically trusts Takumi Takahashi and Jordi Torres within his MIE Racing team. However, during MotoGP testing at Sepang in early February, rumors spread that Midori Moriwaki was negotiating with Lorenzo Savadori and that the parties were in agreement. However, the contract had not been signed. Savadori preferred to remain a MotoGP test rider for Aprilia, and it was likely that the Noale manufacturer would pay him a much better salary than Honda MIE could. On the other hand, a possible replacement of a starting rider injured during the MotoGP season is always a good opportunity to showcase yourself. Not to mention Iannone's problems.
At Moriwaki, we are therefore working to hire Jordi Torres at MIE Honda as a second driver. But since the negotiations are not yet concluded and no contract has already been signed, it is too late to be present at Phillip Island for the Spaniard, and it is now clear that the team will only have one sole driver – Takahashi – for the season opener in Australia on the last weekend of February and for the second race in Qatar two weeks later. Already at the beginning of January, Honda was informed that the team did not have a sufficient budget to cover the entire World Championship with two riders.
Torres will therefore ride only the second CBR1000RR-R starting at the European opener in Jerez on the last weekend of March. In 2019, Torres rode for Pedercini Kawasaki, the new team of Sandra Cortese, and shone with 6th place at Laguna Seca.
The big question now is where Moriwaki, and his partner Genesio Bevilacqua, will find the additional budget necessary to complete the season.
Leon Camier and Ryuichi Kiyonari in 2019
Photos © Honda Racing, Moriwaki Engineering
