David Alonso to join Honda’s MotoGP ranks in 2027
Honda Racing Corporation has secured one of Grand Prix racing’s brightest young talents, signing David Alonso to a multi-year agreement that will take the Colombian into the MotoGP World Championship from 2027.
Alonso will complete the current Moto2 season with the CFMOTO Aspar Team before making his Honda MotoGP debut at the traditional post-race Valencia Test.
HRC’s announcement confirms that Alonso will race a Honda in 2027, but stops short of identifying which team he will represent. That leaves open whether the 20-year-old will move directly into the factory Honda HRC Castrol squad or begin his premier-class career within the LCR Honda structure.
Whichever garage ultimately receives him, Honda has now locked down a rider whose progress through the development categories has been both rapid and, at times, record-breaking.
A rise built on championships
Born in Madrid but racing under the Colombian flag, Alonso has been part of the Aspar development system throughout much of his formative career.
He won the European Talent Cup in 2020 before stepping up to the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup, where he secured the 2021 championship with a race to spare.
That progression eventually carried Alonso into the Moto3 World Championship. His rookie Grand Prix campaign in 2023 quickly established that he was more than another promising youngster waiting for experience.
Alonso claimed four victories and eight podiums on his way to third in the championship, with the first of those wins arriving in extraordinary fashion at Silverstone. After qualifying at the back of the grid, he carved through the field to become the first Colombian rider to win a motorcycle Grand Prix.
It was an early demonstration of the racecraft that would soon separate Alonso from the rest of the Moto3 field: calm in a crowded group, instinctive under brakes and rarely intimidated by the prospect of having to make several decisive passes in the closing laps.
Alonso dominates Moto3
If Alonso’s rookie campaign announced his potential, the 2024 season confirmed it beyond doubt.
The CFMOTO Aspar rider took control of the Moto3 World Championship and secured the title at Motegi with his tenth victory of the season. By that point, the Colombian had already assembled a championship advantage that none of his rivals could realistically contain.
Alonso did not ease off once the title was secured. He continued winning through the closing rounds and finished the season with 14 victories, establishing a new benchmark for wins during a single lightweight-class campaign.
His final success of the year in Barcelona completed a seven-race winning streak and capped a season in which Alonso consistently combined outright pace with a remarkable ability to manage the often-chaotic final laps of a Moto3 contest.
That 14th victory completed one of the most dominant seasons in lightweight Grand Prix history and made Alonso the first Colombian motorcycle World Champion.
Moto2 brings a different challenge
The step into Moto2 in 2025 provided a more substantial test. The heavier machinery, greater emphasis on corner-exit performance and far smaller margin between success and the middle of the field demanded a period of adaptation.
Alonso still reached the podium during his rookie Moto2 season before producing his breakthrough at Balaton Park. His late-race composure carried him past established title contenders and made him the first Colombian rider to win a Moto2 Grand Prix.
His second season in the intermediate class has further strengthened Honda’s belief in his long-term potential.
Alonso took consecutive pole positions at Brno and Assen during a particularly strong mid-season run. He converted the first into second place in the Czech Republic before prevailing in one of the closest finishes of the 2026 season at Assen.
The Colombian defeated championship leader Manuel Gonzalez by just 0.024-seconds after a final-chicane showdown, with Australian Senna Agius only 0.234-seconds from victory in third. The result marked Alonso’s second Moto2 victory and moved him into fourth place in the championship.
That Assen victory also underlined Alonso’s ability to perform under intense final-lap pressure, one of the defining traits of his Moto3 career.
Honda invests in Alonso’s future
Across Moto3 and Moto2, Alonso has accumulated 20 Grand Prix victories, 30 podium finishes and nine pole positions.
Those numbers are impressive for any rider, but particularly notable given Alonso is still only 20 years old and part-way through just his fourth full season in the Grand Prix paddock.
Honda’s multi-year commitment therefore represents more than the recruitment of a rider for a vacant 2027 seat. It is a long-term investment in someone HRC believes can become a central figure in the next phase of its MotoGP programme.
The exact shape of that programme, and Alonso’s place within either the factory or LCR structure, remains to be confirmed. For now, his immediate task is to maintain the momentum that has taken him to fourth in the Moto2 standings and finish his Aspar tenure on a high.
Alonso will then sample Honda’s 2027 MotoGP machine for the first time at Valencia, beginning the next chapter in a career that has already delivered championships, records and a series of historic firsts for Colombia.
