A year and a half ago, Florian Alt won his first IDM Superbike title, ending a thirteen-year drought for Honda. Now he’s hoping to repeat that triumph on the CBR 1000 RR-R, but he also has some reservations. Starting Friday, the Holzhauer Promotion Racing (HRP) team will be testing in Valencia, Spain.
Florian “Flo” Alt was invited by HRC to the first test of the year and found himself in Jerez on his IDM Superbike, surrounded by riders from the Superbike World Championship. It was a complete success. “Takeo Yokohama, the technical figurehead who has already contributed to six MotoGP world championship titles, was there. And Kazu Imai, the director of the Suzuka 6-Hour Race, was there especially for us, because the Honda electronics are very complex,” Alt reports. The weather stayed dry for a day and a half; the rest of the time it rained. “But we managed to be just under a second faster than last year. That was our takeaway.”
Nevertheless, the husband—who has been married since January—has his concerns and believes: “The competition from BMW will give us a hard time again.” BMW’s successful M 1000 RR model has been refined in detail for 2025 and has become even more powerful. However, no one really knows how the new BMW will perform in its first year in IDM trim. As a precaution, the 2023 champion and last year’s runner-up is therefore hoping for more technical concessions in the regulations for the Honda CBR 1000 RR-R. “On the other hand,” he admits, “this is our second year with the 24-valve Honda. That’s a clear advantage over last season.”
Today, Alt hopes to fly to Valencia for the next test, “unless there’s another strike. Otherwise, we’ll drive 14 hours by car.” Florian Alt names Argentine Leandro “Tati” Mercado (BMW) and Italian Lorenzo Zanetti (Ducati) as his main rivals in the title race. “I do think that BMW team boss Werner Daemen thought long and hard about why he signed Mercado. He’ll stay in the seat and won’t mess anything up. He’ll be the team’s top scorer.”
Florian Alt has nothing to do with the FIM World Endurance Championship this year. Team Viltais, for which he raced for several years, has been sold.