Forward Racing

Forward Racing is a motorcycle racing team competing in the Moto2 World Championship and WorldWCR.

History

The team started competing in the MotoGP class as the Hayate Racing Team, a scaled down version of the Kawasaki factory team that withdrew from MotoGP for the championship due to the Great Recession. The team took its name from the Japanese word Hayate meaning hurricane. The team ran one Kawasaki ZX-RR motorcycle that was ridden by Marco Melandri.

Kawasaki stopped developing new parts for the motorbike in March 2009, meaning Kawasaki's involvement was limited to servicing and maintaining the motorcycle for the rest of the 2009 season. Despite this, Melandri achieved a remarkable result in coming second at the French Grand Prix at Le Mans in May.

In 2010, they participated as Forward Racing in the new Moto2 class, with Jules Cluzel and Claudio Corti as their riders on Suter bikes. Cluzel won the British Grand Prix and finished 7th in the championship. Corti had a pole position for the same race, but his best result was ninth at Misano. In 2011 the team competed with Cluzel and Alex Baldolini, later replaced by Raffaele De Rosa. The best result was a fourth place clinched by Cluzel at the British Grand Prix.

The team returned to MotoGP in 2012 as one of the Claiming Rule Teams and signed Colin Edwards, fielding a Suter chassis with a BMW engine.

For the 2012 Moto2 Championship Forward Racing signed Alex de Angelis and Yuki Takahashi. The team started the season with Suter bikes then switched to FTR after six rounds; with the new chassis de Angelis won the Malaysian Grand Prix.

For 2013, Forward Racing expanded its MotoGP involvement to a two-rider team, signing Claudio Corti alongside Colin Edwards with new FTR-Kawasaki bikes. The Moto2 effort was expanded to four riders with Simone Corsi, Mattia Pasini, Alex de Angelis and Ricard Cardús aboard Speed Up bikes.

In 2014 the team again entered the MotoGP class with two bikes for Colin Edwards and Aleix Espargaró. Taking advantage of the new Open category, Forward Racing intended to use Yamaha-leased YZR-M1 engines with FTR frames, however the team started the season with a complete Yamaha YZR-M1 engine-frame-swingarm package with other parts supplied by FTR. At the Mugello round Edwards debuted the new Forward frame built by Harris Performance. Espargaró, who stayed with the Yamaha frame, achieved a pole position at Assen and finished on the podium at Aragon with second place, finishing seventh in the championship.

In Moto2 Forward Racing stepped back to a two-rider team, retaining Pasini and Corsi. The team started the season with 2013-specification Kalex frames modified in-house and rebadged as Forward KLX. At the fifth round the team switched to official Kalex bikes. Riding the new frame Corsi scored two podiums, but a crash at Silverstone ended his season. He was then replaced by Supersport World Championship rider Florian Marino.

For the season, Forward Racing renewed their partnership with Yamaha, planning to run two bikes with YZR-M1 engine-frame-swingarm packages and abandoning the in-house chassis project. New riders were Stefan Bradl and Loris Baz. Forward also renewed its commitment to the Moto2 class fielding two Kalex frames for Simone Corsi, returning from his injury, and new teammate Lorenzo Baldassarri.

Shortly after the German round, littles problems afflict the team that than announced that they had released Stefan Bradl from his contract at his request. The team returned on track at Brno in both the MotoGP and Moto2 classes with Bradl being replaced by Claudio Corti alongside Baz, Corsi and Baldassarri.

In 2016, the team left MotoGP, but remained in the Moto2 class. On 11 September 2016, at the San Marino Grand Prix, Lorenzo Baldassarri achieved his first victory, which was the third victory ever for the team in the World Championship. In 2017, the team continued in Moto2, with the same pair of riders as the previous season. In 2018, the team used Suter motorcycles entrusted to the Italian Stefano Manzi and the Brazilian Eric Granado without obtaining significant results. In 2019, Forward began a collaboration with MV Agusta to bring their F2 to the track. The riders were the Swiss rider Dominique Aegerter and Manzi. The season ended in eleventh place in the Moto2 team championship, obtaining their best performances in the Dutch TT and the Valencian Community Grand Prix.

In 2020, Forward continues its collaboration with MV Agusta. The riders who were entrusted with F2 are Manzi and Simone Corsi. The season ends in third place in the team standings, while Manzi obtains the first pole position of his career in the Valencian Community. For 2021, Lorenzo Baldassarri is hired alongside Corsi. The season, in which both owners are forced to miss races and are replaced, ends in fourteenth place in the team standings with another pole, again in Valencia by Corsi. In 2022, Corsi begins his third consecutive year with the team, the other rider is Marcos Ramírez. The season turns out to be below expectations with five points scored by Ramírez. Corsi, having ridden in over three hundred Grand Prix in his career, retires.

In January 2023 the end of the collaboration with MV Agusta was announced. The team originally planned to use a Kalex prototype that was branded as Forward, but chose to retain the MV Agusta chassis and rebranding it as Forward instead. The regular riders were Ramírez and Álex Escrig. The first point of the season came on at the Indian Grand Prix with the replacement rider Sean Dylan Kelly. The season ended in third, and last, place in the constructors championship with only 4 points.

In 2024 the team made its debut in MotoE and the inaugural WorldWCR season. In Moto2, Escrig is joined by Xavier Artigas, who was making his debut in the category. The team also moved away from the MV Agusta-based machine from 2023 to form their own chassis, marking the team's return as a chassis manufacturer. In MotoE, the team announced Andrea Mantovani and María Herrera as official riders. Herrera was also entered by the team into the WorldWCR season where she finished second overall in the championship.

The team announced they were to increase their participation in WorldWCR in 2025 by running two bikes and signed Roberta Ponziani to ride the second bike.

Results

Year Class Team name Motorcycle No. Riders Races Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points Pos. MotoGP Hayate Racing Team Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR 33 Marco Melandri 17 0 1 0 0 108 10th Moto2 Forward Racing Suter MMX 16 Jules Cluzel 17 1 2 0 1 106 7th 71 Claudio Corti 17 0 0 1 0 20 25th 70 Ferruccio Lamborghini 1 (5) 0 0 0 0 0 NC Moto2 NGM Forward Racing Suter MMXI 16 Jules Cluzel 17 0 0 0 0 41 21st 25 Alex Baldolini 10 (14) 0 0 0 0 18 27th 35 Raffaele De Rosa 7 (13) 0 0 0 0 0 NC 2012 MotoGP NGM Mobile Forward Racing BMW-Suter MMX1 5 Colin Edwards 17 0 0 0 0 27 20th 7 Chris Vermeulen 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC Moto2 Suter MMX2FTR Moto M212 15 Alex de Angelis 16 1 2 0 1 86 10th 72 Yuki Takahashi 17 0 0 0 0 2 30th FTR Moto M212 54 Mattia Pasini 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC 2013 MotoGP NGM Mobile Forward Racing Kawasaki-FTR MGP13 5 Colin Edwards 18 0 0 0 0 41 14th 71 Claudio Corti 18 0 0 0 0 14 19th Moto2 NGM Mobile Racing Speed Up SF13 3 Simone Corsi 17 0 1 0 0 108 11th 54 Mattia Pasini 17 0 0 0 0 58 15th NGM Mobile Forward Racing 15 Alex de Angelis 17 0 0 0 0 81 14th 88 Ricard Cardús 17 0 0 0 0 9 23rd 2014 MotoGP NGM Forward Racing Forward-Yamaha 5 Colin Edwards 10 0 0 0 0 11 22nd 41 Aleix Espargaró 18 0 1 1 0 126 7th 15 Alex de Angelis 8 0 0 0 0 14 21st Moto2 Forward KLX-KalexKalex Moto2 3 Simone Corsi 12 0 2 0 0 100 7th 54 Mattia Pasini 18 0 0 0 0 35 21st Kalex Moto2 20 Florian Marino 6 0 0 0 0 0 NC 2015 MotoGP Athinà Forward RacingForward Racing Yamaha-Forward 6 Stefan Bradl 8 (17) 0 0 0 0 9 (17) 18th 76 Loris Baz 17 0 0 0 0 28 17th 71 Claudio Corti 4 0 0 0 0 0 NC 24 Toni Elías 5 (6) 0 0 0 0 2 27th Moto2 Kalex Moto2 3 Simone Corsi 17 0 0 0 0 86 12th 7 Lorenzo Baldassarri 17 0 1 0 0 96 9th Moto2 Forward Team Kalex Moto2 7 Lorenzo Baldassarri 17 1 2 0 1 127 8th 10 Luca Marini 18 0 0 0 0 34 23rd Moto2 Forward Racing Team Kalex Moto2 7 Lorenzo Baldassarri 16 0 0 0 0 51 16th 10 Luca Marini 16 0 0 0 0 59 15th Forward Junior Team 22 Federico Fuligni 4 (6) 0 0 0 0 1 38th 1 (6) 0 0 0 0 0 (1) Moto2 Forward Racing Team Suter MMX2 51 Eric Granado 10 0 0 0 0 0 NC 62 Stefano Manzi 15 0 0 0 0 8 24th 32 Isaac Viñales 9 (17) 0 0 0 0 0 (7) 26th 50 Rafid Topan Sucipto 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC 3 Lukas Tulovic 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC Moto2 MV Agusta Idealavoro ForwardMV Agusta Temporary Forward MV Agusta F2 62 Stefano Manzi 18 0 0 0 0 39 19th 77 Dominique Aegerter 19 0 0 0 0 19 22nd 6 Gabriele Ruiu 1 (2) 0 0 0 0 0 NC Moto2 MV Agusta Forward Racing MV Agusta F2 24 Simone Corsi 14 0 0 0 0 15 24th 62 Stefano Manzi 15 0 0 1 0 21 22nd Moto2 MV Agusta Forward Racing MV Agusta F2 7 Lorenzo Baldassarri 14 0 0 0 0 3 31st 24 Simone Corsi 14 0 0 1 0 16 24th 10 Tommaso Marcon 1 (5) 0 0 0 0 0 35th 3 (5) 0 0 0 0 0 77 Miquel Pons 1 0 0 0 0 0 36th 18 Manuel González 2 0 0 0 0 0 33rd Moto2 MV Agusta Forward Racing MV Agusta F2 24 Simone Corsi 19 0 0 0 0 0 35th 42 Marcos Ramírez 20 0 0 0 0 5 30th 98 David Sanchis 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC 17 Álex Escrig 1 0 0 0 0 0 38th Moto2 Forward Team Forward F2 17 Álex Escrig 9 0 0 0 0 3 27th 42 Marcos Ramírez 8 (19) 0 0 (1) 0 0 0 (65) 16th 67 Alberto Surra 8 0 0 0 0 0 33rd 98 David Sanchis 3 0 0 0 0 0 43rd 19 Lorenzo Dalla Porta 2 0 0 0 0 0 35th 55 Yeray Ruiz 2 0 0 0 0 0 42nd 4 Sean Dylan Kelly 4 (14) 0 0 0 0 1 29th 2 (14) 0 0 0 0 0 2024 Moto2 Klint Forward Factory Team Forward F2 11 Álex Escrig 18 0 0 0 0 0 33rd 43 Xavier Artigas 19 0 0 0 0 10 25th 9 Jorge Navarro 1 (9) 0 0 (1) 0 0 0 (27) 23rd 5 (9) 0 0 (1) 0 0 6 (27) 40 Unai Orradre 1 0 0 0 0 0 41st MotoE Ducati V21L 6 María Herrera 16 0 0 0 0 43 16th 9 Andrea Mantovani 16 0 0 0 0 113 9th WorldWCR Yamaha YZF-R7 6 María Herrera 12 6 9 3 1 215 2nd 2025 Moto2 Klint Forward Factory Team Forward F2 9 Jorge Navarro 22 0 0 0 0 3 29th 11 Álex Escrig 20 0 0 0 0 25 22nd 17 Daniel Muñoz 2 (8) 0 0 (1) 0 0 (1) 0 (37) 20th MotoE Ducati V21L 6 María Herrera 12 0 0 0 0 38 16th* 9 Andrea Mantovani 14 1 4 0 2 135 7th WorldWCR Yamaha YZF-R7 6 María Herrera 12 6 10 3 0 245 1st 96 Roberta Ponziani 12 1 2 2 3 156 4th 2026 Moto2 Klint Forward Factory Team Forward F2 9 Jorge Navarro 4 0 0 0 0 0* 29th* 11 Álex Escrig 7 0 0 0 0 30* 12th* 85 Xabi Zurutuza 2 0 0 0 0 0* 31st* WorldWCR Yamaha YZF-R7 58 Paola Ramos 5 2 4 1 2 86* 3rd* 96 Roberta Ponziani 6 0 1 0 0 76* 4th*

KeyRegular rider Wildcard rider Notes Season still in progress.

References

External links