After winning the Bol d'Or in the Endurance World Championship (EWC) and the IDM final in Hockenheim, Florian Alt had so many options for the coming season that the 26-year-old from North Rhine-Westphalia almost felt dizzy. The Gummersbach native, who goes by the nickname "Flo," explains why he chose Honda.
Firstly: The EWC team Viltais, for which Alt competes in the Endurance World Championship, changed manufacturers at the end of the season and now rides Honda instead of Yamaha.
Secondly, Alt hopes to end the balancing act between two different makes of superbike in 2023. Even though he has recently mastered the transition between the two, he believes he can achieve even more if he can ride with the same tires and identical chassis components in the future, according to his press release. In the IDM, he is one of the title favorites in the premier class in Jens Holzhauer's HRP Honda team. Alt will compete in all championships on a Honda CBR 1000 RR-R, ride on Pirelli tires, and use Öhlins suspension.
Thirdly: The crowning glory is the prospect of wildcard entries in the Superbike World Championship. He has been promised one event, it is said, with more in the pipeline.
The goals of the 1.89-meter-tall athlete with a fighting weight of 72 kilograms are clearly defined: to find the last second that Honda needs to win the coveted IDM title and to compete at the top of the EWC so that, as the best customer team of the last two years, they can also aim for the overall victory in the World Endurance Championship in the medium term.
"Unbelievable, who would have thought it? A year ago, there were still discussions about my IDM team cooperating with my EWC team and using the 1000cc BMW and our own ZF suspension. Then BMW withdrew from the negotiations due to numerous breakdowns and engine problems that needed to be resolved first. And my previous IDM team surprised me by announcing that they were ending their collaboration with the Bavarians," Alt recalls the last few months. He continues: "So at the beginning of October, we were faced with a completely new situation. I had already noticed the potential of the Honda CBR1000RR-R during the season. Then Honda went on to win the EWC World Championship. Riding both series on a Honda seemed to me to be the best solution for 2023."