Honda set for 2026 WorldSBK management change?

Honda will reportedly change its team manager for the 2026 WorldSBK season.

Jose Escamez has been in the role of Team Manager at Team HRC since the beginning of the 2024 season when he joined the World Superbike side of Honda’s racing programme from MotoGP.

The Spaniard, though, will be replaced in 2026, according to reports from Italian publication GPOne, which say he will be replaced by Yuji Mori, an engineer from Japan.

In general, Honda’s results have trended positively since the middle of last year, with the Honda CBR1000RR-R regularly figuring in the top-six.

It has yet to crack the podium in 2025, though, and Honda has not been as competitive as either Yamaha, which won with Andrea Locatelli at Assen, or the new Kawasaki-backed Bimota project, which has scored two front rows and a podium in its maiden WorldSBK season, in the group behind Nicolo Bulega and Toprak Razgatlioglu who, together, are dominating the series at the moment.

Rumours have also linked Honda with several riders since the beginning of 2025 for the 2026 WorldSBK season, including Alvaro Bautista and Jack Miller, although the speculation over Miller also included Cal Crutchlow moving to HRC to replace Escamez as manager.

2026 will be the seventh season of the CBR1000RR-R as Honda’s Superbike campaigner. It has won BSB races and finished as runner-up in the standings, ARRC titles including in 2024 with Yuki Kunii, and has won three Suzuka 8 Hours editions on the spin since 2022.

But, in WorldSBK, it’s managed only six podiums in that time, and no race wins.

Escamez’s appointment in 2024 was a part of a grand prix-oriented push to bring the Fireblade to the top of WorldSBK. His replacement would signify an acceptance from Honda that that philosophy has not worked.