Forward Racing

Forward Racing is a motorcycle racing team competing in the Moto2 World Championship, MotoE 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

;Notes
Season still in progress.

References

External links

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{{Moto2 teams

Motorcycle racing teams
Motorcycle racing teams established in 2009
2009 establishments in Switzerland
FIM Women's Motorcycling World Championship
Agno, Ticino