Honda has put a name to the next phase of its MotoGP rebuild, confirming Mikihiko Kawase will become team manager of the factory Honda HRC Castrol squad from 2027.
The move matters because 2027 is not just another season on the calendar. MotoGP’s next major rules cycle will arrive then, and Honda has chosen to hand its works project to an engineer already embedded in the company’s technical recovery rather than make an outside paddock signing.
MotoGP confirmed Honda’s announcement on Thursday, with Kawase moving up from his current technical manager role. Alberto Puig, whose original appointment as Honda team manager was covered by ReadMotorsport in 2018, will remain part of the structure as a Honda HRC advisor.
Honda keeps the reset in-house
Kawase’s appointment is a significant signal about how Honda wants to attack the 2027 regulation change. Rather than separating garage leadership from development direction, it is leaning into continuity between its technical department and race-team management.
That is a notable choice for a factory that has spent recent years trying to climb back from the far end of the MotoGP order. Honda’s rider situation has already been under scrutiny, with Joan Mir’s Honda future becoming one of the sharper questions around the project earlier this season.
Kawase joined Honda HRC in 2012 after his own racing background in Japan and later led Honda’s Moto3 world championship project before moving into MotoGP. Since 2024 he has been Honda’s MotoGP technical manager, putting him close to the RC213V’s ongoing development push.
Puig shift closes one chapter
Puig’s move into an advisory role also gives Honda a cleaner long-term structure. His experience remains available, but the team-management brief now points toward the next technical era rather than the final stretch of the current one.
That timing is important. The 2027 grid and rider market have already been one of the championship’s dominant background themes, and ReadMotorsport has previously examined why the shape of MotoGP’s 2027 grid is forming earlier than teams may want to admit.
Honda’s decision does not instantly solve the performance gap. It does, however, remove one uncertainty before the rules shift arrives. Kawase will inherit a factory operation that still has to prove its recovery on track, but he now has the runway to shape that fight before MotoGP’s new era begins.
