Honda Superbike shock: will test rider Jonathan Rea be faster than the new factory riders?

Jonathan Rea won’t race the entire World Championship but remains an active rider. He has signed with Honda HRC to develop the CBR-RR. For the newly appointed starters Jake Dixon and Somkiat Chantra, it could turn into a tricky comparison.

With his six World titles and 119 victories, the Northern Irishman will remain for a long time the winningest rider in Superbike. Let’s be clear: Jonathan Rea announced his partial step back because he was forced by circumstances. After two bleak years with Yamaha, he didn’t find an opportunity worthy of him. “If I had found a competitive challenge, I would have considered continuing,” he kept repeating in recent weeks. Rea was aiming for a BMW or a factory Ducati. The Germans chose other options, and the Italian brand bet everything on Nicolò Bulega, doubling his salary (€700,000). Rea has never raced for peanuts: at Kawasaki he had princely contracts, and the same at Yamaha. Only Toprak Razgatlioglu in 2025 has earned more than Jonathan. Seeing him on the Red bike would have been a spectacle, but Bologna wasn’t interested.

So we’re talking about a rider who didn’t stop out of conviction, but a champion who at 38 might still have had plenty to show us. “Even last season I kept a winning mentality; I firmly believe I’m still one of the best riders on track.” Honda has bet on two Superbike rookies: the first is Jake Dixon, coming from Moto2 but with prior BSB experience. The other is Thai rider Somkiat Chantra, fresh off a MotoGP season as a backmarker. Jonathan Rea has never gone head-to-head with them, but the idea that he could be faster than both on the CBR-RR is hardly science fiction.

Jonathan Rea has said goodbye (for now…) to the World Championship without racing. In the final outing at Jerez, he was injured in a heavy crash in race 1, forcing him to miss the last two races. Leaving Yamaha was a relief; now he’s off on a new adventure: lifting Honda, which despite major concessions with Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge in recent years has collected many disappointments and very few joys. Regulatory allowances grant HRC more testing than its rivals. What would happen if Jonathan Rea turns out to be faster than Dixon and Chantra? Jonathan will definitely do some wild cards: he will be an exciting presence.

The testing season kicking off this week in Jerez risks being more intriguing than the Championship that also concluded in Andalusia last month. We’ll enjoy the debut of Danilo Petrucci and Miguel Oliveira on the BMW as they begin a nerve-jangling challenge: not making people miss Toprak Razgatlioglu, who with the M1000RR in two years celebrated two World titles and 39 victories. Yamaha will see Xavi Vierge and Stefano Manzi in action for the first time, and we’ve already covered Honda. Winter lap times don’t mean anything, but they are evocative. We can’t wait.