Honda in the 2026 Supersport World Championship: Seasonal target achieved, but bleak prospects

It came as a huge surprise when Team CBO Racing, with the support of HRC, Honda Europe and Honda France, announced its entry into the Supersport World Championship in November 2024 and has been competing ever since with Ana Carrasco and Corentin Perolari. This was because the CBR600RR had remained virtually unchanged technically for years and was already outperformed by the Yamaha R6. However, following the introduction of the Next-Generation regulations, which permit the use of large-capacity motorcycles, the Japanese rivals were also forced to develop a suitable machine – Stefano Manzi and Albert Arenas have clinched the title in the past two years on the R9.

The Supersport project is a long-term endeavour, as Bruno Skotnicki of Honda France emphasised at the time. “Honda is building a programme spanning several years. Under the leadership of the racing department, the aim is to represent Honda at the very highest level in this category. Honda wants to improve the motorbike, the riders and the staff.”

The results after two years do not tell a success story: two-time world champion Carrasco has yet to score a single World Championship point in the middleweight category, but has nevertheless been offered a contract for 2027. Star rider Perolari finished the 2026 Supersport World Championship in 20th place with 35 points. The Frenchman scored points in just seven races. The 28-year-old achieved his best finish with seventh place in the first race at Portimão. The season ended with a respectable eleventh place at Jerez.

“I’m very pleased with the last race weekend; I never thought I’d finish like this,” said the Frenchman happily. “On Sunday, I was able to keep up with the others and stay in touch with the leaders. I felt comfortable on my CBR600RR and gave it my all. We know it’s hard to make the top 10, but we were close and picked up points. That allowed us to secure the Challenge title, which is a great reward for the team. It’s satisfying to have achieved our goal.”

Manageable competition in the WorldSSP Challenge for Honda

The WorldSSP Challenge features riders who only compete at race weekends in Europe. This year, however, apart from the two Honda riders, this consisted solely of the two QJ Motor riders and privateer Andreas Kofler (Yamaha) – a manageable field of competitors.

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“We’ve achieved our season’s goal, and that’s a great accolade for the whole team,” emphasised Skotnicki. “I’d like to congratulate the whole team on this fantastic season finale in Jerez. We’ll be back stronger next year.”

The outlook is bleak, however, as QJ Motor has teamed up with Ten Kat Racing, the most successful Supersport team, for 2027. The Chinese manufacturer is working on a new motorbike and, with the Dutch team’s expertise, QJ is expected to be significantly stronger next year.