WSB: Leon Camier named as new Honda team manager

Team HRC has named Leon Camier as their new team manager for the 2021 World Superbike season.

The Brit has called time on his racing career after suffering from a long list of injuries over the last few years. He takes over from Jaume Colom at Honda from today.

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Camier has not been able to fully recover from his latest injury; a shoulder problem caused following a crash on his testing debut for Barni Racing Ducati at Aragon at the end of 2019. As a result, Camier underwent two operations and he was forced to initially withdraw from the opening two rounds of 2020. Still unable to ride in June, Barni Racing made the decision to terminate his contract.

The 34-year-old joined WorldSBK in 2010 after dominating the British Superbike Championship in 2009, which led to the introduction of the Showdown format in BSB. Camier has been a mainstay in the championship and has raced several different bikes. Over the years Camier raced for Suzuki, BMW, MV Augusta, Ten Kate Racing Honda and then the HRC-supported Moriwaki Althea team.

Although he failed to win a race, Camier secured a total of nine podiums during his time as a rider in WorldSBK.

“I’ve been a Honda rider for several seasons during my career and I’m now very happy and proud to be back with the company for what is a major change in my professional and personal life,” Camier said. “I thank Honda for the trust they have put in me – the WorldSBK project is very important and the new CBR1000RR-R Fireblade looks absolutely great. I’m prepared to work hard to achieve our goals; I always did so as a rider and I will continue in the same way as team manager.

“Having raced in SBK for many years, I know the championship and its challenges very well, although the current period further exacerbates these issues. But in working alongside two very strong riders like Alvaro and Leon, and such a professional group of people as Team HRC and the HRC engineers, I am confident we’ll be able to reach our full potential and fight for top results.

“We now have two days of testing at Jerez, it will be my first opportunity to work with the team and I really look forward to starting this new and exciting adventure.”

Team HRC will be present at the two-day Jerez test this week (January 20-21) with riders Leon Haslam and Alvaro Bautista looking to build on their efforts last season with the new Fireblade.