Honda's first MotoGP factory bike following its split with iconic title sponsor Repsol has been unveiled ahead of the 2025 season.
It’s the last manufacturer to present its '25 colours, with only its satellite team LCR - which usually runs split liveries - yet to have a presentation among MotoGP's 11 teams.
Spanish oil giant Repsol had lent its name and colours to Honda's premier-class effort for three decades, becoming synonymous with stretches of dominance by the likes of Mick Doohan and Marc Marquez.
Repsol's presence on the bike last year was already considerably diminished, which was widely thought to be connected with Marquez's sudden departure.
Now 2025 marks another big livery change.
This is because Honda's "old friend" Castrol - another oil company (subsidiary of BP) and one that too has in the past lent its likeness to iconic Honda bikes - has come on board as a title sponsor, with the team now going by 'Honda HRC Castrol' as part of a multi-year deal that also includes a technical partnership.
In recent years Castrol served as a title sponsor for one of LCR's bikes, and last year Johann Zarco's green Castrol LCR machine was usually Honda's best-performing MotoGP bike.
The new factory Hondas aren't green, however, with Honda's traditional racing colours white, blue and red the dominant motive on the new livery and the new race suits of works riders Joan Mir and Luca Marini, bringing the bike and the attire closer to what Honda is already running in World Superbikes and in the Suzuka 8 Hours.
Mir, contracted through 2026, and Marini, who enters a contract year, were naturally on hand for the launch, taking place in Jakarta at the Astra Honda training centre.
Likewise present was Honda team boss Alberto Puig, who said "we need to have high hopes, but also the commitment and the determination to go back on our Honda winning mode".
Headline new hires Romano Albesiano - the tech chief brought in from Aprilia - and Aleix Espargaro - also hired from Aprilia as test rider - didn't appear, with Espargaro busy testing the new Honda in the current pre-test shakedown taking place at Malaysia's Sepang track.
