1 / 3
News
Alonso takes to two wheels at Honda celebration
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso didn’t need asking twice when offered the chance to ride reigning MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez’s bike at Japan’s Motegi Twin Ring Circuit over the weekend, as Honda celebrated the end of their racing year.
Alonso - a huge bike racing fan, but more used to Honda power in the back of his F1 car - took to the track alongside Marquez and his team mate Dani Pedrosa, in front of around 20,000 fans at the 2016 Honda Racing Thanks Day.
Also in attendance were Alonso’s 2016 McLaren team mate Jenson Button and his replacement for next season, Stoffel Vandoorne, all of whom got to ride and drive various motorcycles, cars, karts and other Honda-powered machines.
Button sampled the Honda NSX Concept-GT, prompting much chatter about the possibility of the 2009 F1 champion competing in Japan’s Super GT series next season, and he and Vandoorne also got behind the wheel of the McLaren MP4/6, as raced by Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger in the early 1990s.
Going slightly further back in Honda’s F1 history, Alonso was lucky enough to drive the V12-powered RA301, which contested the 1968 Formula One season in the hands of 1964 world champion John Surtees.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Video LIVESTREAM: Catch all the Round 12 action from the season finale of the 2025 F1 Sim Racing World Championship
News Alpine reserve Ryo Hirakawa to drive in FP1 at Japanese Grand Prix
Feature EXCLUSIVE: ‘I’m here for the grind’ – Nico Hulkenberg on his Sauber return, Audi’s impending arrival and targeting F1’s top step
Feature IN NUMBERS: How Verstappen’s team mates fared against him with Tsunoda the latest to step up
