Honda HRC Castrol are back – Austrian GP restarts the year
The three-week summer break has come and gone, Luca Marini and Joan Mir, of Honda HRC Castrol, returning eager to attack the second half of the season. A unique challenge in the Red Bull Ring presents as a first chance to blow the cobwebs away.
Spielberg will host the MotoGP’s much anticipated return. It will kickstart an intense end to the year with five sets of back-to-back races seeing out 2025. At just 4.35 kilometres long with 11 corners, the Austrian track is one of the simplest on paper.
However, the heavy braking and hard acceleration make it a complicated circuit to master. The unique layout has produced some titanic clashes in the past.
After three weeks without action, no doubt the MotoGP grid will be fired up.
Luca Marini arrives looking to match his results from earlier in the year. He aims to close the distance to the top ten in the World Championship standings. The Italian remains the only rider on the grid to have scored points in every Grand Prix he has entered in the 2025 season. There is plenty of speed for the #10 to show in Austria. This is especially the case after more time to recover and rebuild his fitness during the break.
For Joan Mir on the other side of the Honda HRC Castrol garage, there is potential to show his top-ten speed once again. He was able to consistently challenge the front two rows in Brno before misfortune hit. Mir and the Honda RC213V are due a solid result. Second in Spielberg in 2020 and 2021, the stop and go nature has suited the #36 well in the past.
From Austria, it will be a straight dash to the new Hungarian GP at Balaton Park. This track appears to be tight and technical.
Luca Marini
“I have had a good three weeks recovering more and more and I am feeling really good, we can approach the rest of the season without limitations. Austria is a really particular circuit, all about heavy braking and accelerating and it will be a good chance to see where everyone stands after the break with upgrades and everything. Looking forward to seeing the team again and continuing to push the Honda RC213V forward with the engineers.”
Joan Mir
“The break has been good to recharge, focus on training and reset a little bit after some tough moments in the start of the year. Now we start an intense push right through to the end of the season, it’s important to be well prepared for it. In 2024 we made a good step in the second part of the season, so I hope that we can repeat that again as a team. We have a lot of information and now it’s time to put everything on track and show our potential because aside from some unfortunate moments before the break, we were showing our potential.”