Honda Racing kickstarts 2025 with the first Official BSB Test
Honda Racing’s 2025 season roared into life in northern Spain for the first of three Official BSB Tests with Superbike riders Tommy Bridewell and Andrew Irwin in attendance alongside Supersport stablemate and reigning champion Jack Kennedy. Dean Harrison and John McGuinness MBE also gained valuable track time at the test with Dean alternating between his respective Metzeler shod road racing bikes and his British Supersport CBR600RR.
Warm and consistent weather conditions afforded Honda Racing maximum track time at this two-day test, which they utilised to test various new settings and parts. Recent revisions to the circuit meant that much of the data and information collected when the team raced here previously in 2024 were obsolete. Nonetheless, the team were unanimous in identifying improvements throughout the test with all riders able to complete their respective testing programmes successfully.
In Superbike, both Tommy and Andrew lapped consistently towards the sharp end of the timing screen each day. Tommy set a personal best lap time of 1:44.992 to end P3 on combined times. Andrew also impressed with a 1:45.581 to finish sixth. Meanwhile in Supersport, a string of off-season developments to the CBR600RR were clear to see with Jack Kennedy topping both days of testing. He set a personal best lap time of 1:47.796.
Dean Harrison, who split his time across different bikes was able to get both his Fireblade and CBR600RR into strong working windows whilst also completing a valuable Metzeler tyre test. He set a personal best of 1:47.714 on his Superbike and 1:48.873 on his CBR600RR. John McGuinness racked up several laps across the two days across his Superbike and Superstock machines, by the conclusion of the test his fastest lap was a 1:50.520.
The team now heads back to the UK to prepare for their next test outing at Donington Park, 18 - 19th April.
#1 Tommy Bridewell
Testing has been good but challenging for sure, we had a few days at Monteblanco before coming here and when we were there honestly the bike was working incredibly well but when we came here to Navarra, it has been quite tough to get the same feeling that I want with the bike. Honestly though, I’m a bit shocked that we are as strong as we are because I don’t feel great when on the bike but I am still riding strong. It’s probably a big positive to be honest because we are achieving the lap time with this feeling and I know that when we get a bit more comfortable we will be in an even stronger position. So there are no negatives really, the team is working hard and we head back to England now to get through a bit more testing and then we can come out swinging at round one to get that number one plate back.
#18 Andrew Irwin
I’ve treated this off-season differently to previous seasons and really invested in myself. I’ve been out here in Spain for almost three months, focussing on my training and riding my practice bike as much as I can. And it’s all so I can hit the ground running and start the season off strongly. It’s early days at the moment but this first test has been super positive, I feel like I’m riding really well and we are working as a team in a good way to make progress step by step. We’ve focussed a lot on electronics and some minor chassis changes for this first test and I feel like we have made some decent steps. I’m looking forward to heading to Donington Park to continue preparing for the season ahead.
#4 Jack Kennedy
We have a fair few upgrades on the 2025 CBR600RR, Honda has been extremely busy during the winter which is so motivating because no one is resting on their laurels of winning the championship last year. Each upgrade that we have put into the bike has been positive which doesn't always happen in truth, but everything that we tried has been positive which is allowing me to ride the bike even harder than I did last year would you believe. We’ve made big steps in all of the key areas, the chassis is improved and we have made a step with the engine. We even decided to finish an hour early today because we have completed our program and we are in a really good spot. We have a good margin over everyone else here at the test in both hot and cool conditions which I am obviously delighted about. We head to Donington with the focus of confirming that all of these positive changes are correct at a track that we know.
#3 Dean Harrison
The week as a whole has been really good, we’ve constantly been developing everything and tested so many different bits and pieces and everything is just getting better and better which is really positive. We had four days at Monteblanco but we lost a day to the weather in the end, so I started the week on the Superstock bike then jumped on the Supersport bike in Monteblanco. Then here at Navarra, I spent a day on the Superbike which has been really positive and we’ve got things in a decent window, before getting onto my 600 again today. We have chipped away all day and gone quicker and quicker even though the weather is getting hotter and hotter and we now have some good direction to work on for Donington. We’ve also been busy doing some Metzeler tyre testing which has gone well and the new compound that we have is definitely a big improvement.
#1 John McGuinness MBE
I’ve spent six days riding in the last seven which is just so, so great, we’re lucky boys to get the opportunity to do so many miles, and miles make smiles! To get everyone back together and to be working so well is great because let's face it, it’s a lot of time living in each other's pockets! But everyone is getting on great and working hard. We’ve been up, down and round the houses with settings and testing bits and bobs. I’ve done a lot of tyre testing too, and it is great to see that Metzeler are putting so much into it and not standing still, because these options that we have tried this weekend have been very good and the new product is strong. For me, the bike is great, the bike is competitive and this time last year we hadn’t had much time on the bike so we are in a really good place. There’s no magic wand for me, I just want to keep riding, keep smiling and go racing.
