SBK, Jonathan Rea: the moment when everything changed

A future as a Honda tester, but Rea is proud of his past as a Superbike protagonist and has recounted an important episode.

The absence of Toprak Razgatlioglu will certainly be felt in the 2026 WorldSBK Championship, but it won’t be the only major one on the grid. In fact, six-time world champion Jonathan Rea will also be missing. Even though he didn’t particularly shine in his last two years with Yamaha, he’s still a legend and cannot be overlooked. It’s true that we might see him back in action as a wildcard, since he has become a Honda tester, but it’s not the same thing.

The Northern Irish rider had also spoken with Yamaha and BMW, but in the end he decided to sign with HRC, with which he is also expected to take part in the 2026 edition of the 8 Hours of Suzuka, a prestigious round of the Endurance World Championship where he has already starred and won in the past. He triumphed with Honda in 2013 and with Kawasaki in 2019. He’ll be hunting for a third.

Rea raced Honda motorcycles both in his lone year (2008) in the Supersport World Championship and in his first six years (2009–2014) in the Superbike World Championship. He was part of the HANNspree Ten Kate team and, especially in SBK, achieved particularly notable results relative to the competitiveness of the CBR1000RR: 15 wins and 42 podiums. He finished in the overall top 5 four times, with 3rd place in 2014 as his best final result.

It was with Honda that he took his first victory in the category, in Race 2 at Misano in 2009: "It was a pivotal moment," he explained to Speedweek. "I always knew I was fast and talented, but winning a race changes everything. Suddenly you understand that you can really do it."

The awareness of not being an ordinary rider isn’t enough; you need to win to gain further confidence and assurance: "I’m rather pessimistic. For me, the glass is often half empty. You always have doubts: maybe I’m not fast enough, maybe I’m only here by luck. But then you win a race and suddenly you know you belong here. I was racing against riders like Haga and Corser, against the big manufacturers, and I was only 21. Looking back, that was the best moment of my career."

In 2026 he will look to help HRC as a test rider, putting his experience to use to best develop the CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP. He will be working again with Chris Pike, the Honda test team’s project manager and his former crew chief.