After years on Yamaha and Kawasaki machines, the well-respected Japanese rider Shinya Nakano finally gets an outing on a satellite Honda RCV. Formidably strong during qualifying in the past, Shinya will be hoping to bring his precise and methodical way of working to this tight-knit and previously very successful team. With changes to team, machine and tyres, it’s not going to be easy, but many rate the Japanese rider highly, so when he gets to grips with all these changes who knows what is possible?

‘Super’ Shinya was the 1998 Japanese 250cc champion and it was a natural progression for him to head to GPs with Yamaha, winning a race and coming fourth overall in his first full 250cc GP year of 1999.

In 2000, Shinya was runner-up in one of the closest 250cc GP championships of all time, where he was beaten by his team-mate Olivier Jacque to the 250 title at the last race in Australia. Both riders had a chance of taking the title, but Jacque came across the line just yards ahead of Nakano, giving the title to the Frenchman. That year, Shinya scored five wins to Jacque’s three, losing the title by just seven points overall.

Moving to the top class from 2001 with Yamaha, Nakano was fifth overall after some impressive rides and stellar consistency in his rookie year in the class. A string of top-five finishes and a podium in Germany helped him become 500cc class rookie of the year. Shinya stayed with Yamaha during the transition to four-stroke power in 2002-2003, but slipped down the rankings.

Joining Kawasaki for 2004, Nakano once more showed flashes of brilliance as he helped develop the fledgling ZX-RR MotoGP machine. In qualifying trim on Bridgestone tyres, Nakano would often secure a place on the front two rows and in 2006 he managed to get a second place at the Dutch TT. With Honda power at last and with the dominant Michelin tyres as well as the experienced Konica Minolta Honda team focussing on him alone, 2007 could see Shinya’s debut win.