The future in MotoGP is about to begin, and Honda is preparing for it. Meanwhile, it has launched an interesting project “The Dream. The Challenge”, with which we can travel in time and recover the history of the golden wing brand in the GP through videos, photos and information from almost seven decades.
The initiative, as we said, comes at a special time because MotoGP is about to enter a new era of technical regulations. This peculiar tour is the Japanese manufacturer’s way of “warming up the atmosphere” until we can see the prototype with which they will compete next season. Of course, we have to pluck the leaves until we get to the Japanese GP in October, which will be when they unveil their new bike.
A curious project that not only uses nostalgia, but is a kind of history of Honda and why “Honda is Honda.” Since it arrived as a Japanese motorcycle manufacturer to compete with the powerful European factories, until it became the giant that we all know.
Because yes, everything began in a very different way from what we know today, when a modest team landed in the 1959 World Championship and made its debut in that year’s TT, which was then a valid event. That made them the first Japanese manufacturer to do so and everything has changed a lot since then.
From the beginning of the dream at the Isle of Man TT to the next Honda prototype
That first challenge on the Isle of Man opened a path that would later mark a good part of Honda’s sporting history. And what later became HRC (Honda Racing Corporation) has experienced successes, titles and moments that have changed the World Championship, but we must not forget that there have also been much more complicated stages in which the brand had to work to stay close to the front line, even much more than now. This double reading, that of victories and that of difficulties, is one of the ideas on which The Dream revolves. TheChallenge.
Little by little, Honda will publish videos, photographs and historical information with different chapters of its sporting career, from its first steps in the World Cup to more recent moments. The objective, as we said, is to go through this evolution with an eye on the immediate future, especially on the new prototype that the HRC will show at home, before its public, during the Japanese Grand Prix.
The connection between past and future is important in this case, because Honda reaches this new stage after some difficult years in MotoGP, away from the dominance that was long associated with the brand. Precisely for this reason, recovering the history of the HRC before showing your next motorcycle has a clear meaning: remembering where the project comes from before presenting where you want to go.
Koji Watanabe, president of the HRC, has linked this initiative with Honda’s traditional philosophy, The Power of Dreams:
«“At the heart of Honda lies “The Power of Dreams”. It is what pushes us all, without exception, to aim for ambitious goals. But it is the challenge that underpins that dream that has allowed us to learn and grow, particularly over the last 60 years in the premier class. Today is the time to look back at the path we have traveled, to reflect on the successes as well as the challenges encountered and to draw from this experience the energy necessary to approach the next era, not only in MotoGP, but in all our racing activities. “
