Hiroshi Aoyama

Hiroshi Aoyama (青山博一, Aoyama Hiroshi, born October 25, 1981) is a Japanese retired Grand Prix motorcycle road racer, and current team principal of Honda Team Asia. Aoyama is best known for winning the 2009 250cc World Championship title. He is the older brother of former 250cc and World Superbike rider, Shuhei Aoyama.

In his six seasons in the 250cc World Championship, he raced Honda and KTM machinery in an Aprilia-dominated class. He took nine victories and never finished lower than seventh overall. By winning the 2009 250cc World Championship, Aoyama become the last winner of this class before its replacement by the Moto2 class in 2010. In 2010 he moved up to the premier class with Interwetten Racing. He stopped competing in MotoGP after the 2014 season and took on the role of HRC test rider and advisor to riders in the Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup.

Career

Early career

Born in Ichihara, Chiba, Aoyama first raced in MiniMoto at the age of 4, racing against Yuki Takahashi, who he has raced against for most of his career. In 2008 he referred to Takahashi as a "respected rival".

He rode in the All-Japan Road Racing Championship until 2003, when he won the 250cc championship with Honda. He also rode a couple of events as wildcard rider in the Grand Prix World Championships, finishing 2nd in the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

125cc, 250cc & MotoGP World Championship

In 2004 he joined the 250cc World Championship full-time, still racing for Honda. His debut season gave him two third places and 6th place in the championship. In the following year he scored his maiden victory in his home race at Motegi and finished the championship in 4th place.

However, he was not able to stay on at Honda, so he moved to KTM for 2006 season. He brought them victories in Istanbul and Motegi, the first two for the manufacturer in the class. For the second year in row, he was 4th in overall standings.

Aoyama ended the 2007 season in sixth place in the 250 championship with victories in Germany and Malaysia. He remained with KTM for the 2008 season and finished the season in seventh place with two second-place finishes.

After KTM's withdrawal from 250cc class, Aoyama returned to Honda with Team Scot replacing his rival Yuki Takahashi who briefly moved up to MotoGP class. The 2009 season went well as he scored 4 wins, 3 second places and finished every other race in the points. At last race of the season Aoyama became the world champion.

Aoyama stepped up to MotoGP in 2010 on board the Emmi-Caffè Latte Team Honda RC212V. In initial testing the team (which is itself new to MotoGP) opted not to use the electronic rider aids, despite the bikes being designed around them. The team's technical director Tom Jojic explained that he wanted Aoyama to experience the bike's true nature, and believes that he is good enough to be competitive on it.^[1] His season was wrecked by a fractured vertebra sustained in a practice crash at Silverstone, eliminating him for much of the season.^[2]

Aoyama was a consistent race finisher in 2011, mainly finishing in the bottom end of the top ten, but finished fourth in the Spanish Grand Prix. Aoyama also replaced Dani Pedrosa on the factory-spec Repsol Honda bike for the Dutch TT in Assen, after Pedrosa's injury at the French Grand Prix. Aoyama moved to World Superbikes for the 2012 season, joining Jonathan Rea at Castrol Honda.

Career statistics

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

By season

Season	Class	Motorcycle	Team	Race	Win	Podium	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd	WCh
2000	250cc	Honda NSR250	Team Harc-Pro	1	0	0	0	0	8	28th	–
2001	250cc	Honda NSR250	Team Harc-Pro	2	0	0	0	0	3	28th	–
2002	250cc	Honda NSR250	Team Harc-Pro	2	0	0	0	0	9	27th	–
2003	250cc	Honda NSR250	Team Harc-Pro	2	0	1	1	1	31	15th	–
2004	250cc	Honda RS250RW	Telefónica Movistar Honda 250cc	16	0	2	0	0	128	6th	–
2005	250cc	Honda RS250RW	Telefónica Movistar Honda 250cc	16	1	4	2	0	180	4th	–
2006	250cc	KTM 250 FRR	Red Bull KTM 250	16	2	7	1	4	193	4th	–
2007	250cc	KTM 250 FRR	Red Bull KTM 250	17	2	4	1	2	160	6th	–
2008	250cc	KTM 250 FRR	Red Bull KTM 250	16	0	2	1	0	139	7th	–
2009	250cc	Honda RS250RW	Scot Racing Team 250cc	16	4	7	2	4	261	1st	1
2010	MotoGP	Honda RC212V	Interwetten Honda MotoGP	12	0	0	0	0	53	15th	–
2011	MotoGP	Honda RC212V	San Carlo Honda Gresini	17	0	0	0	0	98	10th	–
2011	MotoGP	Honda RC212V	Repsol Honda Team	17	0	0	0	0	98	10th	–
2012	MotoGP	BQR	Avintia Blusens	1	0	0	0	0	3	25th	–
2013	MotoGP	FTR MGP13	Avintia Blusens	16	0	0	0	0	13	20th	–
2014	MotoGP	Honda RCV1000R	Drive M7 Aspar	18	0	0	0	0	68	14th	–
2015	MotoGP	Honda RC213V	Repsol Honda Team	4	0	0	0	0	5	25th	–
2015	MotoGP	Honda RC213V-RS	AB Motoracing	4	0	0	0	0	5	25th	–
2016	MotoGP	Honda RC213V	Repsol Honda Team	2	0	0	0	0	1	25th	–
2017	MotoGP	Honda RC213V	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	1	0	0	0	0	0	30th	–
Total				175	9	27	8	11	1353		1

By class

Class	Seasons	1st GP	1st Pod	1st Win	Race	Win	Podiums	Pole	FLap	Pts	WChmp
250cc	2000–2009	2000 Pacific	2003 Japan	2005 Japan	104	9	27	8	11	1112	1
MotoGP	2010–2017	2010 Qatar			71	0	0	0	0	241	0
Total	2000–2017				175	9	27	8	11	1353	1

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos	Pts
2000	250cc	Honda	RSA	MAL	JPN	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GBR	GER	CZE	POR	VAL	BRA	PAC 8	AUS			28th	8
2001	250cc	Honda	JPN 13	RSA	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GBR	GER	CZE	POR	VAL	PAC 21	AUS	MAL	BRA			28th	3
2002	250cc	Honda	JPN 12	RSA	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GBR	GER	CZE	POR	BRA	PAC 11	MAL	AUS	VAL			27th	9
2003	250cc	Honda	JPN 2	RSA	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GBR	GER	CZE	POR	BRA	PAC 5	MAL	AUS	VAL			15th	31
2004	250cc	Honda	RSA 11	SPA Ret	FRA 4	ITA 9	CAT 6	NED 10	BRA 6	GER 4	GBR 9	CZE 7	POR 9	JPN 3	QAT 3	MAL Ret	AUS 7	VAL DSQ			6th	128
2005	250cc	Honda	SPA Ret	POR 6	CHN 3	FRA 6	ITA 7	CAT 4	NED 4	GBR Ret	GER 3	CZE 5	JPN 1	MAL 5	QAT 6	AUS 6	TUR 3	VAL 6			4th	180
2006	250cc	KTM	SPA 6	QAT 5	TUR 1	CHN 3	FRA 4	ITA Ret	CAT 6	NED 9	GBR 3	GER 8	CZE 3	MAL Ret	AUS 3	JPN 1	POR 2	VAL Ret			4th	193
2007	250cc	KTM	QAT Ret	SPA 6	TUR Ret	CHN 9	FRA Ret	ITA 21	CAT 7	GBR 3	NED 5	GER 1	CZE 6	RSM 2	POR Ret	JPN 8	AUS 4	MAL 1	VAL 10		6th	160
2008	250cc	KTM	QAT 16	SPA 4	POR 5	CHN 2	FRA 7	ITA 8	CAT 7	GBR 6	NED 6	GER 8	CZE 13	RSM Ret	INP C	JPN 9	AUS Ret	MAL 2	VAL 5		7th	139
2009	250cc	Honda	QAT 4	JPN 2	SPA 1	FRA 8	ITA 6	CAT 2	NED 1	GER 4	GBR 1	CZE 4	INP 2	RSM 4	POR 4	AUS 7	MAL 1	VAL 7			1st	261
2010	MotoGP	Honda	QAT 10	SPA 14	FRA 11	ITA 11	GBR DNS	NED	CAT	GER	USA	CZE	INP 12	RSM 12	ARA 13	JPN 10	MAL 7	AUS 13	POR 12	VAL 14	15th	53
2011	MotoGP	Honda	QAT 10	SPA 4	POR 7	FRA 8	CAT Ret	GBR 9	NED 8	ITA 11	GER 15	USA 10	CZE 9	INP 9	RSM 11	ARA 11	JPN 9	AUS Ret	MAL C	VAL 12	10th	98
2012	MotoGP	BQR	QAT	SPA	POR	FRA	CAT	GBR	NED	GER	ITA	USA	INP	CZE	RSM	ARA	JPN	MAL	AUS	VAL 13	25th	3
2013	MotoGP	FTR	QAT 15	AME 17	SPA 18	FRA 19	ITA Ret	CAT WD	NED	GER 17	USA 16	INP 15	CZE 14	GBR 18	RSM 14	ARA 14	MAL 11	AUS 20	JPN 17	VAL 16	20th	13
2014	MotoGP	Honda	QAT 11	AME 12	ARG 10	SPA 12	FRA 14	ITA 14	CAT 15	NED 16	GER 12	INP 10	CZE 13	GBR 14	RSM 12	ARA 8	JPN 13	AUS 8	MAL 11	VAL 15	14th	68
2015	MotoGP	Honda	QAT	AME 11	ARG Ret	SPA Ret	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GER Ret	INP	CZE	GBR	RSM	ARA	JPN	AUS	MAL	VAL	25th	5
2016	MotoGP	Honda	QAT	ARG	AME	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GER	AUT	CZE	GBR	RSM	ARA	JPN 15	AUS	MAL 16	VAL	25th	1
2017	MotoGP	Honda	QAT	ARG	AME	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GER	CZE	AUT	GBR	RSM	ARA	JPN 18	AUS	MAL	VAL	30th	0

Superbike World Championship

By season

Season	Motorcycle	Team	Race	Win	Podium	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd
2012	Honda CBR1000RR	Honda World Superbike Team	27	0	0	0	0	61.5	18th
Total			27	0	0	0	0	61.5

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Bike	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		12		13		14		Pos	Pts
Year	Bike	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	Pos	Pts
2012	Honda	AUS 8	AUS 9	ITA 18	ITA Ret	NED 12	NED 13	ITA C	ITA 11	EUR 17	EUR 10	USA 17	USA Ret	SMR 16	SMR 12	SPA 14	SPA 15	CZE Ret	CZE Ret	GBR 13	GBR 14	RUS 13	RUS Ret	GER 10	GER 15	POR 8	POR Ret	FRA Ret	FRA 14	18th	61.5

References

^ "Aoyama 'electronics-off' strategy explained". crash.net. Crash Media Group. 2010-01-04. Archived from the original on 2010-06-25. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
^ "Aoyama recovering, but no word on return". crash.net. Crash Media Group. 2010-08-02. Archived from the original on 2010-08-06. Retrieved 2010-08-02.