2025 Honda World Superbike livery unveiled

Honda has launched its 2025 World Superbike campaign and revealed the livery for this year’s CBR1000RR-R Fireblade.

The bike retains the familiar corporate colours of HRC – red, blue, and white – in a design clearly similar to that of 2024.

Compared to last year, the major change at Honda is the switch from Showa to Ohlins suspension, an adaptation which was not enhanced by the poor weather encountered by all teams at the WorldSBK tests in Jerez and Portimao at the beginning of this year.

While there is change on the suspension front, the rest of the bike – which was a new homologation in 2024 with engine updates and a new aerodynamic package – is mostly unchanged.

The same can be said for the rider line-up, with Xavi Vierge and Iker Lecuona remaining aboard the factory HRC machines.

Jose Escamez also stays on as team manager for this year, having debuted in the role in 2024. The Spaniard came to WorldSBK from MotoGP, and says he found the series more demanding than his expectations.

“It’s more demanding than I expected, to be honest,” he said of the production derivative series.

“It’s not easy to adapt everything in a championship where you have strict rules, so you have to be very attentive as to what kind of things you can and can’t do. And the biggest challenge, not just for me but for all the teams, is to win.

“As always, we have high expectations, and it is much harder than I personally thought it would be. The challenge is to get back on the podium and win.”

Escamez confirmed that this year will see Honda’s WorldSBK project collaborate on a larger scale with Honda Europe.

“Actually, we’ve had a logistical base in Europe since the very beginning of this project,” he said.

“It’s true that this year we are going to increase this collaboration with Honda Europe, which will be more involved with our test team and the development of the bike.

“We are putting in extra effort with the aim of speeding up our work and the way we reach our goals.”

2025 will be the sixth season of Honda’s factory WorldSBK team in its current guise, with the first round coming up on 21-23 February at Phillip Island in Australia.