[WSBK] What is Honda preparing for its return to Superbike?

As soon as the Superbike World Championship was created, Honda immediately believed in this formula and entered five official riders in the first year. This enormous effort was immediately rewarded by the two titles of Fred Merkel in 1988 and 1989, followed by those of John Kocinski in 1997, Colin Edwards in 2000 and 2002, and James Toseland in 2007. In the meantime, Honda had officially withdrawn and entrusted its interests to the Dutch dealer Ten Kate, who took the title with Toseland.

Until the time of Colin Edwards, it was a factory presence, with Neil Tuxworth as team manager, Japanese financing and motorcycles manufactured (since the very first RC30) by HRC (Honda Racing Corporation). After the Edwards period, Ten Kate managed alone to prepare motorcycles on the basis of production machines, with the means at hand such as Cosworth injection, and financing from Honda Europe, therefore lower than what it was before. Toseland's title was a great reward, coming as an apotheosis to glorify the world crowns obtained by Ten Kate in Supersport with Fabien Foret, Chris Vermeulen, Carl Muggeridge, Sébastien Charpentier, Andrew Pitt, Kenan Sofuoglu and Michael van der Mark.

Everything went well for Honda in WSBK until 2007, but then it was clear that despite its valiant efforts, Ten Kate could not compete with the factories which took the following titles from it. Ducati (Troy Bayliss and Carlos Checa), Yamaha (Ben Spies), Aprilia (Max Biaggi and Sylvain Guintoli) and Kawasaki (Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes) took control of the Superbike where Honda only resisted with difficulty.

Fortunately, cousins Gerrit and Ronald Ten Kate got their hands on a very talented driver by hiring Jonathan Rea at the Portugal race in 2008, who remained with the Batavian team until the end of the 2014 season in Qatar. Johnny hid his poverty brilliantly, winning at least one race each year, and even finishing third in the World Championship in 2014 with 4 victories, which earned him the opportunity to be hired by Kawasaki to replace Loris Baz who left for MotoGP at Forward Racing on Yamaha (4th at Misano in 2015).

Michael van der Mark and Sylvain Guintoli succeeded Rea at Honda in 2015, then Nicky Hayden in place of the Frenchman in 2016, then Stefan Bradl in 2017, then Jake Gagne and Leon Camier in 2018, without the slightest success since the last victory of Jonathan Rea in Portimao on July 6, 2014.

Honda magnificently dominating the Grands Prix with Marc Marquez, holder of 5 MotoGP titles from 2013 to 2018, we then had the impression that the world's leading manufacturer decided to strengthen its presence in other categories. The first significant example was endurance, where the valiant Honda Endurance Racing team with rather modest results, received the very solid reinforcement of the FCC TSR Honda France team which arrived on the scene like a bulldozer and won the last World Championship, while then taking the lead of the current one during the last Bol d'Or which she finished as winner.

In Superbike, the wind seems to be blowing in the same direction, with the announcement at the last Milan Motor Show of the Moriwaki Althea Honda Racing team. Leon Camier and Ryuichi Kiyonari are the drivers, while the Althea Mie Racing Team was presented in parallel with the former Superstock 1000 driver Alessandro Delbianco, last week in the presence of Midori Moriwaki (the boss) and the HRC Grand Chief Tesuhiro Kuwata. Genesio Bevilacqua (President of Althea) was there, while Jonathan Rea's former team boss at Ten Kate, Chris Pike, supported the two official drivers in Buriram for private and discreet tests. So discreet in fact that the motorcycles remained blocked by Thai customs for several days before finally being able to reach the Chang International Circuit in Buriram. For Honda, the choice may have initially seemed logical: the equipment is much cheaper and faster to ship from Japan to Thailand than to Europe.

Pirelli competition director Giorgio Barbier can understand Honda’s thinking: “ If they test in Thailand, they have conditions very close to those of the race in March. Also, they can use all day. Why would they travel so far to spend a few hours in the cold in Europe? »

Is Honda making a strong comeback in WSBK? It seems that everything is not yet in place. But the will is there, the equipment (CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 prepared by the HRC) too, as well as the serious and recognized team that is Moriwaki, more significant funding, and competent people too, including Ryuichi Kiyonari who is certainly part of the workforce to supervise and provide experience.

Faced with the superb work of Kawasaki, the renewed efforts of Ducati and Yamaha, and the rise of BMW, we can only hope for a Honda presence worthy of what it was in the era of Fred Merkel and Colin Edwards.