Rea targets ending Honda’s decade-long World Superbike win drought

Honda’s last victory in the FIM Superbike World Championship came in 2016 when the late American racer Nicky Hayden powered to victory on a Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP in Race 2 at the rain-lashed Sepang International Circuit. A decade without a win – that’s a primary reason why Honda lured six-time WorldSBK champion Jonathan Rea out of retirement to join the brand’s Honda World Superbike Championship team as a test and development rider. The most successful and decorated WorldSBK rider of all-time with six titles, 119 race wins and 264 podium finishes, the 38-year-old has become a part of Honda's research and development program.

“Jonathan is still very much relevant and should at least be able to provide valuable feedback for Honda,” offered Mick Doohan, a five-time 500cc world champion for Honda, of Rea and his new role. “It would be fantastic to see Honda back fighting for race wins and championships again.”

Rea, who raced for Honda in Superbikes from 2008 through 2014, now comes full circle in attempting to breathe race-winning speed and performance life into the company's CBR1000RR motorcycle.

“It’s going to be tough – it’s a big job ahead,” admits the Ulsterman. “I knew it was going to be tough when I signed up for that gig, to be fair. It was something that I was excited about because I’m working with some people who were working with Honda back in the day when I raced for them. Since I left in 2014, Honda haven’t won a race in the dry at all. There is a little bit of motivation there to try and come back and put my stamp on things

“Ducati right now are the reference. We know that. They’re working super hard. Rome wasn’t built in a day and we need to just keep chipping away and the engineers, they need to work. They know the issues we have and the things that prevent us from being so competitive. With all the tests that I’ve been doing, I’ve been doing at similar pace to the race guys. At least me and the test team, we can be at the same speed as the race guys to evaluate parts and new strategies and electronics on the same kind of pace. The ambition and the target is to be much better than we are."

That pace has been of extra value because beyond his R&D duties, Rea also was drafted into the race team at select WorldSBK events as a replacement rider for injured HRC rider Jake Dixon.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect to be as busy as what I am,” says Rea who has competed at the Portimao and Assen rounds thus far, “When I signed up for the job, I was happy to have a transition in my life from full-time wanting to win races. When I spoke about the amount of testing I would do to Honda, it didn’t seem like that much but all of a sudden the schedule is packed.

"The test team are planning to do a wild card at my home race in Donington Park. I’ll be running alongside the test program. HRC have asked me to take part in the Suzuka 8 Hour race. So I spent two weeks out there testing in May. I go testing in Misano next week. I’ve got a private test in Donington and then I go to Suzuka. Yeah, these next five or six weeks are going to be super-busy. The team has been working super hard and I’ve been able to give them a little direction, but when you’re working with production bikes, it’s so hard to re-invent the wheel. You have to race what you sell all of the time. It’s not like in MotoGP where you can fast-track development because they’re prototypes. We know the areas we need to improve. I’m working so hard because I know the race team is working hard and they’ve got talented guys on the bike like Jake Dixon and Somkiat Chantra. We need to be able to give them a bike that they compete at the front with."

For Rea, it's all just another part of a long journey.

“I’ve been in all these different stages in my life and career,” he says. “I’ve been that ruthless guy trying to win championships. Now when I went to Japan for testing, I had four days off and I went with my mate to Tokyo to go sightseeing. That’s cool. I can enjoy that part of it a little bit. When I was in that race-mode bubble you’re pretty much just airport, hotel and racetrack. Now I can enjoy it a little bit more with less stress and less pressure. I can now appreciate the surroundings. When I was in that bubble of racing, it was more like I was so self-centered just about my performance. Now, of course I want to do well, but if things aren’t working, or if I don’t understand the material that I’m on and struggling a bit, I’m not going to crash and wreck bikes trying to gain one position. I’m not trying to swim upstream. It’s more like, ‘Hey, this is where we are.’ I can be OK with that.

"Yeah, it’s definitely a different mindset and one I’m enjoying. I mean the Suzuka 8 Hour, that’s our main goal for the season. We want to try and win the Suzuka 8 Hour race. And I would love to win it for the third time. It was also part of the reason of taking this job, because Honda wanted me to do that. It can be a full-circle moment going back to Honda and going back to Suzuka and winning there. That’s definitely the big target.

"Yamaha, they have a super-strong team with Jack Miller, Andrea Locatelli and Katsuyuki Nakasuga. We’re under no illusions and it’s going to be tough. Somkiat Chantra stepped up into our Honda team, so it’s me, him and Takuma Takahashi. Honda have moved from winning this thing so many years in a row, to now probably being the underdogs, but we’re ready to step up and fight and see where we are.”

All things considered, Rea has found the new reality of his surroundings both fulfilling and rewarding.

“It’s different," he admits. "A lot of times this year I’ve been at private tests and it’s me riding around myself trying parts with a stopwatch on me. There is no end result. There is no podium or result list. That’s what makes it easier. There is no pressure and there is no stopwatch and you can just do the job and think about giving clear and concise feedback. Too many times when there is stopwatch or other guys around you’re trying to think about lap times. Right now our biggest focus is on proving this bike and be more competitive. It’s definitely a mind set shift, but I’m enjoying it.”

After stringing together such an extraordinary racing career does Rea feel like he has anything further to achieve?

“No, no. I think I’ve ticked all the boxes. And I done that a long time ago," he says. "I won my first world championship in 2015 with Kawasaki and Monster Energy and everyone. That was me and I was so happy. I was done. I ticked a box and fulfilled a childhood dream. Everything that came after that was a bonus. Sometimes I don’t realize what we achieved in that period.

"I look at Nicola Bulega leading the championship right now and who is smashing everybody in World Superbike. He’s doing such a good job, but we did that for six seasons. It’s hard to believe when you’re out of that bubble. You take it for granted how tough it is when you’re not winning. But fortunately we’ve got the trophies and the memories and the pictures that show we were that guy in World Superbike for such a long time. It was an amazing period. “