Honda teases "full circle moment” with Motegi MotoGP announcement

Honda has teased a “full circle moment” as part of its The Dream. The Challenge series that follows its MotoGP project.

The Dream. The Challenge was launched by Honda earlier this year, in June, to celebrate the history of Honda in the premier class of grand prix racing in what is the 60th anniversary year of its entry to that level of the world championship, what was 500cc and is now MotoGP.

The episode that has been teased for the Japanese MotoGP is due to drop on 1 October, so the day before practice day at the Mobility Resort Motegi.

Explicit details are very light at this stage, with Honda releasing only a teaser social media post, but there are a few things we can take from it.

Firstly, the silhouetted bike in the image is the RC213V of the 2026 season, so this is unlikely to be something related to 2027 and the start of the 850cc era. The “full circle moment” tagline would also not fit with a 2027 reveal of some kind.

More likely, this is going to be a reveal of a special livery for Takaaki Nakagami’s wildcard bike at Motegi, one which would likely be historically inspired to commemorate 60 years since Honda’s first world championship appearance.

Adding to the possibility that the announcement from Honda is related to Nakagami’s wildcard is that it was not retracted when Joan Mir pulled out of the Japanese and Indonesian grands prix for health reasons. 

Logically, with only a few races remaining in the 1,000cc and Michelin era of MotoGP, there is little benefit to a manufacturer like Honda – which is unlikely to win any of this year’s three titles and mathematically incapable of winning the manufacturers’ crown – trying highly experimental new parts in a push for development because the developments made now are likely to be of little use by December.

And yet Honda kept Nakagami’s wildcard and brought in Somkiat Chantra to replace Mir in Japan, meaning the wildcard – which will be the last one to ever be taken in MotoGP as they will be banned from next season – is of some importance to Honda. A commemorative livery on the occasion of the six-time champion RC213V’s final home race would seem logical in that case.