With Round 4 of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship now firmly in the books, the grid now looks forward to a trip to Donington Park, the UK Round of the Championship. One man who will desperately be hoping for a real reversal of fortunes is six-time world Champion Jonathan Rea (Pata Prometeon Yamaha). The Ballymena native has endured a torrid start to his 2024 campaign, despite flashes of potential onboard the Yamaha.

“VERY LUCKY TO GET AWAY WITH THAT”: Rea recalls rapid crash

During Race 1 on Saturday, Rea suffered an incredibly scary crash at Turn 13, an incident he described as feeling like he was “tumbling forever”. Rea reflected on his Saturday misfortune by saying this: “I’m very thankful that I got to race today. I want to thank Arai and Alpinestars for keeping me safe during that crash…it was 130 miles per hour, and I was very lucky to get away with that.” Rea suffered injuries and contusions on his left hand and wrist, but fortunately would ultimately be cleared to ride on Sunday. Reflecting further on his weekend, the #65 rider said: “With the Superpole race, I started on the fifth row, but I found myself with some good track positions, but I was SO close to crashing into accident (between Gerloff and Gardner). I need to work on making this bike mine. With all the requests and trying to work towards a good setup…it’s just not coming.”

“IT’S HARD TO SEE WHERE THE WAY FORWARD IS COMING”: Rea in the abyss

Next, Rea addressed yet again the issues of his bike, and the feeling of being uncompetitive onboard it. Speaking to his struggles, Rea said this: “From my side it’s frustrating, because since I jumped on the bike, I feel like we’ve made baby steps…I need something that I can fight with. It was nice at the Misano test, being fast over one lap, but we just didn’t start off with that same momentum. I don’t want to doubt myself, but it’s hard to see where the way forward is coming.” Rea went even further with his criticism, saying: “No excuses. We weren’t fast enough this weekend…there’s no excuse for being subpar.” At Misano, Rea, who has won eight times on the Adriatic Coast, endured some very difficult results, including the DNF in Race 1. However, Rea did finish P8 in the Tissot Superpole Race, as well as securing P10 in Race 2, though this was of scant consolation to the Yamaha rider.

“WE HAVEN’T KICKED ON”: Rea laments lack of progression

Rea was next asked in relation to the current issues with his Yamaha R1, where the bike actually is in terms of development. The ex-World Championship was scathing in his condemnation, saying: “Let’s not kid ourselves…Assen was a chaos race. The long and the short of it is that when I jumped on the R1 in the Winter Test, it felt great…but we haven’t kicked on. It’s really, really hard to push when I’m not fully confident. It’s frustrating times for sure.” Furthermore, Rea discussed expectations for future rounds, and he wasn’t exactly optimistic: “I need to forget the podium and expectations, because that’s where pressures come from. The next target is to understand this bike and to really put a lot of pressure on the guys to give me what I need to be fast. It’s frustrating when we’re not addressing problems.”

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