Honda on MXGP starts: “We’ve focused on this area”

Honda HRC Petronas dominated the 2026 season: 1st, 4th and 7th places in the World Championship standings. 14 wins from 19 Grands Prix and 26 podium finishes across all three riders. They secured 11 victories in 19 qualifying races and won 23 out of 38 motos. However, a key statistic is the 21 holeshots achieved by Jeffrey Herlings and Tom Vialle.

This was a significant achievement, particularly for Herlings, who claimed 9 of them and led the first lap in 50 per cent of all motos in 2026. Vialle, who contributed 12 of these, is significantly smaller and lighter than his Dutch team-mate and has proven himself to be a consistently excellent starter since entering the Grand Prix scene in 2019.

HRC has focused a considerable portion of its extensive technical resources on the electronics and performance of the CRF450RW since the pre-production prototype appeared in the final stages of the 2025 season and was put through its paces by Ruben Fernandez. The exact scope of the work is being kept under wraps, but Honda has significantly accelerated the way in which data is collected and analysed, as well as its rapid implementation into the preferred engine characteristics of its three riders.

“The prototype of the motorbike was unveiled last year, and since then we’ve been working very hard to develop and improve it,” explained the team’s technical coordinator, Roger Shenton, in an exclusive interview with SPEEDWEEK.com writer Adam Wheeler. “This took place over the winter, in pre-season and also during this racing season. We’ve focused particularly on the starts. We knew this wasn’t one of Jeffrey’s greatest strengths, but he now feels quite confident. Tom has always been a good starter, as was evident right from the first GP, whilst we still had to give Ruben a bit of a helping hand. We worked very hard in Japan to make improvements wherever possible, and it’s becoming clear, step by step, that we’re getting better.”

According to Shenton, the current CRF450RW “features some major changes. Both the Japanese research and development department and the HRC racing department have put a lot of work into its development.” Honda reportedly has a more powerful and more compact engine, but has also achieved smoother handling. “The bike’s balance is very good, and Jeffrey found the chassis really pleasant to ride as soon as he got on it,” added Shenton.

As far as ECU specifications are concerned, HRC is relying on more reliable technology to develop a racing motorbike that is unbeatable off the line but remains easy to control under a wide variety of conditions. “Thanks to our data systems and data loggers, we now have a better overview,” said Shenton. “More parameters – this helps us to tailor the motorbike individually to each rider, depending on the desired engine character or riding behaviour. It has definitely evolved compared to a few years ago, but it’s still not easy. It requires extensive data collection and analysis to understand what the rider prefers, and then to implement this in the bike’s settings.”

Advances in artificial intelligence have helped to speed up data analysis and simulations in MotoGP and other racing series where the data is more consistent. The constantly changing conditions on a motocross track make the use of AI in the MXGP somewhat more complex. “A little,” Shenton admitted, when it comes to the integration of AI into day-to-day operations. “I know that our colleagues in Japan like to use it in some of their systems. I think it will play a greater role [here] in the near future. This applies more to the Japanese side than to [the racing team] here in Europe. It’s still under development and will play a bigger part in the coming months.”

Herlings’ sixth championship title – his third in the premier class and his first on Japanese machinery – was also HRC’s fifth in the last ten years. Whilst the prestige of the title carries weight, the demands of the MXGP and the needs of the top riders provide Honda’s developers with specific and rare feedback. ““I believe they really benefit from what they discover here in the GP series, and not just, for example, from the Japanese national races,” said Shenton somewhat cautiously. “They show great interest and are strongly committed to the MXGP. The information we pass on from our side to Japan is actually immense.”

HRC’s golden Grand Prix year of 2026 goes hand in hand with recent successes in the United States, where the Lawrence brothers and riders such as Jo Shimoda have demonstrated the capabilities of the CRF customer package. The collaboration between HRC in Japan, Honda HRC Petronas and American Honda is close, but the bikes are not as similar as fans might think – mainly due to the production-based AMA regulations, whilst the MXGP enjoys complete freedom to develop prototypes. Shenton: “We have the prototype here at the start and then pass it on to them in the US a year later. We’re working very hard to transfer [our knowledge] to the US. Of course, they still have to make fine-tuning adjustments for their respective riders and their set-ups, [but] a large part of the data is collected here first.”

The status of the 2026 CRF450RW as a ‘work in progress’ was highlighted this season by a number of technical issues; Herlings was frustrated by the difficulties at the Grands Prix in Latvia and Belgium, but the team worked through the potential weak points, and in the absence of his title rival Lucas Coenen, Herlings dominated the last eight Grands Prix (16 consecutive races) – from Great Britain through Sweden and Turkey to China and Australia. The 32-year-old could at least rely on the CRF’s strength off the line. “The bike was developed with the aim of improving this aspect, as we’d struggled a bit with it in recent years and had focused on this one area,” Shenton summarised. “I say ‘difficulties’ because there weren’t that many holeshots. They were rare, but this year we’ve managed quite a few.”

“But,” he added, “I still believe it’s a combination of rider and bike.”