The Honda Racing Corporation launched their 2019 MotoGP Campaign challenge, with their presentation of the RC213V for upcoming season in Madrid, yesterday.
The bike looked much the same as the previous years, as did the livery, so attention was very much focused on the “dream-team” aspect of the HRC Repsol outfit having the 5-time world champion Jorge Lorenzo and 7-times world champion Marc Márquez for 2019.
Present at the event were ex-HRC champions Mick Doohan and Alex Crivillé, who gave their accounts of the difficulties and success of their respective ventures with the HRC Repsol team. HRC will only hope that Marc and Jorge follow a similar if not better pattern of success. It’s certain that the the roster at HRC is a positive one. With arguably two of the best riders that have ever graced the top class in motorcycle racing, on possibly the best bike of the last 5 years to match, it’s hard to see that 2019 won’t be a very fruitful one for HRC.
Evoking memories of past inter-team rivalries with a Repsol flavoured arena the presentation was surely a benefit to the interest in HRC for the new season, although one does wonder how much Jorge Lorenzo would have boosted the popularity of the Honda Factory entity.
The remaining (known and confirmed) MotoGP launches to occur are as follows :
- Petronas Yamaha SRT – 28th January
- Suzuki Ecstar – 31st January
- Yamaha Factory Racing – 4th February
- Red Bull KTM Factory Racing / Tech3 – 12th February
