Honda Racing Corporation Announces 2021 Motorsport Plans

Honda Racing Corporation has announced its plans for the 2021 year with respect to the motorsport events and activities. The motorsport arm of the Japanese auto giant plans for participation in the most of circuit racing championships, while also dominate the off-road and trials events with its presence. Honda has a strong motorsport history on two wheels and the company bagged over 800 Grand Prix wins in MotoGP last season.

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Honda plans to go back to its winning ways in MotoGP and with the factory-backed Repsol Honda team having riders Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro on board. Pol replaces Alex Marquez at Repsol Honda with the younger Marquez moved to the LCR Honda satellite team for next year. The decision was taken much before the 2020 season even begun and has remained the same despite Alex's highly impressive growth arc during the course of the season. Nevertheless, keeping with the rules of 2021, both the factory and satellite teams will be using the 2020 RC213V race machine. So all four riders will have the same machine on the grid, which makes them equal contenders for the championship. With respect to Marc Marquez's condition, the rider will be missing winter testing to focus on recovery, but there's no word if the rider will be able to compete in the initial rounds of the 2021 campaign.

Takaaki Nakagami will be joined by Alex Marquez at LCR Honda next season with Pol Espargaro racing alongside Marc Marquez at Repsol Honda in 2021

The Idemitsu Honda Team Asia will be competing in the Moto2 class with riders Somkiat Chantra from Thailand and Ai Ogura from Japan, while Honda Team Asia will compete in Moto3 with riders Andi Farid Izdihar and Yuki Kunii. Honda will also compete in the FIM Superbike World Championship series with riders Álvaro Bautista and Leon Haslam. The factory team will be fielding the CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP in the premier production racing series.

Furthermore, Honda will participate in the motocross and trials championships and will participate in the FIM Motocross World Championship Series (MXGP) with Team HRC with riders Mitchell Evans and Tim Gajser. The AMA SuperCross World Championship Series (450SX) will see the team participate with Ken Roczen and Chase Sexton on the CRF 450. And Honda plans to continue its dominance in the FIM Trial World Championship Series (TrialGP) with 14-time winner Toni Bou returning to claim his 15th title, along with Takahisa Fujinami.

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Toni Bou will aim to maintain his dominance in the TrialGP world championships next year

The big update is Honda defending its Dakar crown in the 2021 edition. Ricky Brabec won Honda its first Dakar in 31 years in the 2020 edition held in Saudi Arabia and team is fielding a four-rider squad for the 43rd edition that includes Brabec along with Jose Ignacio Cornejo, Kevin Benavides and Joan Barreda. The riders will be on the CRF 450 Rally bikes.