ONE PARTNERSHIP, FIFTY YEARS IN THE MAKING.
WHEN A NEW CHAPTER ENDS IN A CHAMPIONSHIP.
Jeffrey Herlings arrived at Honda HRC for the 2026 season after spending his entire premier-class career with KTM. A manufacturer change that late in a rider's career is often viewed as a transition year, with expectations focused on adaptation rather than immediate results.
Instead, the championship was decided at the Türkiye GP with two rounds still remaining on the calendar. Herlings secured his third MXGP title and sixth world championship, turning what many expected to be a rebuilding season into a championship-winning campaign.
Honda HRC is also one of four factory MXGP operations
running VP MOTO R, alongside Yamaha, TM Moto, and Bud Racing. In a paddock
where manufacturers compete through different engines, chassis, suspension
systems, and development philosophies, those teams have reached the same
conclusion when it comes to fuel.
VP Racing is the official fuel of Honda HRC.
Jeffrey Herlings
Honda HRC
VP MOTO-R
World Champion
Türkiye GP
Six Titles
MOTO-R
A first season that ended two rounds early
Jeffrey Herlings arrived at Honda HRC for 2026 after a career spent entirely with KTM. Changing manufacturer at that point in a career is usually a season written off to learning, and it is normally described that way in advance by everybody except the rider.
The championship was decided at the Türkiye GP on 5 and 6 September, with two rounds of the calendar still to run. It is his third MXGP title and his sixth world championship.
The switch is the part that will be remembered. The rest of the grid spent the winter assuming the first year would be a transition.
Four factory teams, one drum
Honda HRC is one of four factory MXGP operations running the same fuel. Yamaha, TM Moto and Bud Racing run it too, which is an unusual arrangement in a paddock where most technical inputs are a point of difference between manufacturers.
What it means in practice is that, for those four teams, the fuel is not a variable anybody is tuning around. It is a constant, and the engineering argument happens everywhere else.
THE RIDER
Jeffrey Herlings#84 Honda HRC
- 2026 MXGP World Champion, clinched at the Türkiye GP on 5–6 September with two rounds still to run.
- First season on Honda, after a career on KTM.
- Third MXGP title. Sixth world championship overall.
Since 1975 · San Antonio, Texas · Supplied from Europe
