TEAM DETAILS
NAME: REPSOL HONDA TEAM
FORMED: 1995
ADDRESS: HONDA
TEAM PRINCIPAL: TEAM MANAGER: SHOJI TACHIKAWA
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: ROGER VAN DER BORGHT
DRIVERS: VALENTINO ROSSI - NICKY HAYDEN
TEST DRIVER: N/A
CHASSIS: HONDA
ENGINE: HONDA
TYRES: MICHELIN
SPONSORS: REPSOL
Shoji Tachikawa and Roger van der Borght run the Repsol YPF Honda team.
The Belgium based outfit has direct input and overall control from HRC Japan and has been sponsored by Repsol since 1995.
In that first year of competition the factory Honda team ran reigning world champion Mick Doohan alongside Repsol favourite Alex Criville and Honda hero Shinichi Itoh. Doohan duly took his second world title, with Criville 4th and Itoh 5th.
For
1996 Criville raised his game and was Doohan's nearest challenger, but couldn't beat the Thunder from Down Under to the title, while Tady Okada and Itoh were 7th and 12th respectively.
1997 saw Japanese hero Okada become Doohan's nearest rival, but the Australian was still able to claim his fourth sucessive crown. Criville took 4th in the title chase with rising star Takuma Aoki 5th.
1998 was a tremendous battle between Doohan and four-times 250cc champion Max Biaggi. After a slow start to the season, Mick took what would be his fifth and final world title, his fourth for the Repsol team. Criville was 3rd, Okada 8th and new rising star Sete Gibernau 11th. Aoki was tragically paralysed in a pre-season accident.
Doohan's reign finally came to an end in 1999 after a horrific accident at Jerez, home of the Spanish Grand Prix. His departure left the way clear for Criville to take his one and only world crown. Okada was 3rd and Gibernau 5th.
2000 was Repsol Honda's lowest year to date with Criville unable to repeat his championship winning form and slipping to 9th, with one win and two podiums. 11th overall Okada scored 107 points with a best finish of third while Gibernau could manage only eight top tens, a best finish of seventh and 72 points for 15th.
2001 was little better with Criville just 8th and new team-mate Tohru Ukawa 10th. Criville would retire at the end of the year.
But 2002 saw the Repsol team revived by valentino Rossi and Honda's new RCV four-stroke. The combination dominated the 2002 season with 11 wins and the world title. Team-mate Ukawa was third overall, but took his first premier class win at South Africa.
AMA SBK champion Nicky Hayden becomes the latest Repsol rider in 2003, with Ukawa moving to the Camel Pramac Pons outfit, and will ride alongside defending champion Rossi on the
2003 spec factory RCV.