Honda first entered the premier 500cc class in 1966. Before the formation of the modern factory entity, the company's works efforts ran under various sponsorships, including the Rothmans Honda team in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1995, Honda restructured its factory premier class programme into a single entity in partnership with Repsol.
The newly branded Repsol Honda team entered 1995 with a three-rider lineup: Mick Doohan, Àlex Crivillé, and Shinichi Ito, all riding the Honda NSR500. Doohan won seven races and secured his second consecutive World Championship in Argentina. Crivillé finished fourth with one race win; Ito finished fifth.
In 1996, the team expanded to four riders. Doohan and Crivillé rode the NSR500 while Shinichi Ito and Tadayuki Okada rode the Honda NSR500V. Doohan won his third World Championship with eight race wins; Crivillé finished runner-up with two wins.
The 1997 season marked total dominance: Repsol Honda won all fifteen races. Doohan alone won twelve, breaking Giacomo Agostini's record for victories in a single season, and claimed his fourth World Championship. Okada finished runner-up with one win. Crivillé missed five races after a serious crash at Assen but finished fourth with two wins. The team achieved clean podium sweeps at four events in Japan, Spain, Germany, and Indonesia.
In 1998, Doohan won eight races to become World Champion for the fifth time in front of his home fans in Australia. Sete Gibernau joined the lineup that year. In 1999, during qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, Doohan suffered a serious crash that ultimately forced his retirement. Crivillé won six races and clinched his first World Championship in Rio de Janeiro. Okada finished third with three wins; Gibernau finished fifth after replacing Doohan on the NSR500 mid-season.
The transition to MotoGP in 2002 saw Valentino Rossi join the team alongside Tohru Ukawa, riding the new Honda RC211V. Rossi dominated the season with eleven race wins and became World Champion with four rounds remaining. Ukawa finished third with one victory and eight podiums.
Nicky Hayden joined Rossi in 2003. Rossi took nine wins and finished on the podium in every race to secure the championship, then left for Yamaha. Alex Barros joined Hayden at Repsol Honda in 2004. In 2005, Max Biaggi replaced Barros; Hayden claimed his first MotoGP victory at the United States Grand Prix and finished third overall.
In 2006, Hayden was joined by 250cc World Champion Dani Pedrosa. Hayden led the championship for most of the season, but at the Portuguese Grand Prix, Pedrosa crashed into him, resulting in a DNF for both. Rossi took the championship lead with one round remaining. At the final round in Valencia, Rossi fell on lap 5. Hayden finished third and became World Champion, having scored two race wins and eight further podium finishes. Pedrosa finished fifth with two wins.
In 2007, the team rode the new 800cc Honda RC212V. Pedrosa became championship runner-up with two wins; Hayden managed three podiums and finished eighth. In 2008, Pedrosa switched to Bridgestone tyres and a wall was placed between the two riders' garages to prevent observation of tyre data. In 2009, Pedrosa was partnered by Andrea Dovizioso, finishing third and sixth respectively.
Pedrosa and Dovizioso were retained for 2010; Pedrosa claimed runner-up with four wins while Dovizioso finished fifth. Honda sought Casey Stoner but Dovizioso's contract contained a performance clause: a fifth-place finish in 2010 secured his seat for the next year. Repsol Honda therefore ran a three-rider lineup in 2011. Stoner won nine races to secure the championship; Dovizioso finished third and Pedrosa fourth, having missed three rounds through injury.
For 2012, Pedrosa and Stoner rode the Honda RC213V. Pedrosa finished runner-up despite winning more races than eventual champion Jorge Lorenzo. Stoner missed three races after an injury in qualifying at Indianapolis and finished third. On May 17, 2012, Stoner announced his retirement at the age of twenty-seven.
On July 12, 2012, it was announced that Moto2 rider Marc Márquez had signed a two-year contract to replace Stoner from 2013. Márquez finished ahead of Pedrosa on his MotoGP debut in Qatar, then won the next race in Texas to become the youngest premier class race winner of all time. He won five more races and clinched the championship at the final round in Valencia, becoming the youngest premier class champion of all time. Honda secured the Teams' and Constructors' championships.
In 2014, Márquez won the first ten races and thirteen overall, breaking Doohan's record for wins in a single season. Honda again secured the Teams' and Constructors' championships. In 2015, Márquez won five races but suffered six DNFs; Red Bull became a main sponsor for the team. In 2016, Márquez won five races and his third MotoGP championship. Pedrosa finished sixth with one win. In 2017, Márquez retained the championship and Pedrosa finished fourth; in 2018, Márquez retained the championship and Pedrosa finished eleventh.
Pedrosa retired at the end of 2018 and was replaced by five-time world champion Jorge Lorenzo for 2019. Lorenzo's season was disastrous: his best race finish was eleventh and he finished nineteenth in the standings. Márquez won his sixth MotoGP title with twelve wins, failing to finish within the top two only once. Honda retained the Teams' and Constructors' championships. Lorenzo retired; Márquez signed a new four-year contract.
Marc Márquez's brother Álex joined him at Repsol Honda for 2020. At the first race in Jerez, Marc suffered a highside that broke his right humerus. Due to surgeries and medical complications, he did not race again in 2020 and was replaced by test rider Stefan Bradl. Álex scored two podiums and finished fourteenth; Bradl finished nineteenth. This was Honda's least successful year in MotoGP for decades.
Marc returned in 2021, with Álex replaced by Pol Espargaró. Marc won three races at Germany, Texas, and the Emilia Romagna GP but recorded four DNFs and missed four more races through injury, finishing seventh. Espargaró finished twelfth with a single podium.
In 2022, Márquez left the grid mid-season for further arm surgery. Despite not starting 8 of 20 races, he finished thirteenth with 113 points, more than double any Honda stablemate. In 2023, Espargaró was replaced by 2020 champion Joan Mir. Márquez failed to finish across the first nine rounds due to crashes on the uncooperative RC213V. At Mugello, Márquez, Mir, and satellite rider Álex Rins were all sidelined by crashes. At the Sachsenring, Márquez crashed five times across practice, qualifying, and warm-up, then withdrew from the race. Márquez scored the factory team's lone podium of the season at Motegi and finished fourteenth. On October 4, 2023, Márquez announced he had terminated his contract with Honda early by mutual agreement.
For 2024, Márquez was replaced by Luca Marini. Mir and Marini finished twenty-first and twenty-second in the standings, with their best race result an eleventh-place finish for Mir at the Emilia Romagna GP. The team finished eleventh and last overall; Honda finished bottom of the constructors' table. On September 8, 2024, Honda and Repsol announced they would part ways at the end of the year, citing Honda's worst run of results since the 1980s and the departure of Márquez. The Repsol orange had already been noticeably reduced from Honda's fairings for the 2024 season.
Mir and Marini were retained for 2025. Castrol, already a title sponsor for satellite squad LCR Honda, was announced as the team's new title sponsor. The 2025 season was more encouraging: Marini rode with consistency to finish thirteenth in the standings, equalling the team's best riders' result since 2021. Mir finished fifteenth, recording thirteen main race DNFs, but also took two podiums at Honda's home race in Japan and in Malaysia. Mir and Marini will continue to ride for Honda HRC Castrol in 2026.
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