WorldSBK, Honda looks to bounce back: Jonathan Rea racks up laps in the Jerez test

Honda is not shining in the WorldSBK, a lot of work is needed on the CBR: Rea rode in Spain to try to improve.

The start of 2026 for the HRC team has been decidedly troubled. First Somkiat Chantra’s injury, missing the pre-season tests and the opening round in Australia; then Jake Dixon’s crash on the last day of testing at Phillip Island: the former Moto2 rider has not yet been able to race in the Superbike World Championship. It seemed he might recover in time for Balaton Park, but in the end it will be the Japanese rider Yuki Kunii to ride his CBR1000RR-R Fireblade. At Portimao and Assen it was Jonathan Rea who raced in his place, trying to contribute to the development of a bike that appears far behind the class leaders.

Even though the main commitments are in MotoGP, Honda does not want to snub the Superbike project. This week it carried out two days of testing at Jerez, with Rea in the spotlight: "Jerez test completed, 111 laps," the six-time world champion wrote on Instagram on Thursday, "lots of data and a good direction. Thanks team for all the hard work!"

The former Kawasaki and Yamaha rider seems pleased with what was done over the two days in Andalusia, where he had the opportunity to put in a lot of laps with the CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP and to understand a bit better how to improve it. It will then be up to HRC engineers to intervene concretely on the bike and produce improvements that the riders can exploit. Rea is doing his best to help relaunch the Japanese brand in WorldSBK, but his effort alone is not enough.

Meanwhile, this weekend features the round in Hungary, and the chances of seeing a Honda struggling again are high. Chantra has been declared “fit” after the strange FP3 crash and subsequent injury that prevented him from racing at Assen. He has never raced at Balaton Park: in 2025, when the MotoGP Grand Prix was held there, he was absent due to another injury. He will need to make good use of today’s free practice to learn the circuit and adapt both to it and to his bike.

Kunii will be making his absolute debut in the Superbike World Championship, with many things to learn. He already races with the Honda CBR1000RR-R, but in the JSB1000 class of the All Japan Road Racing Championship. We’ll see how he gets on—expectations are low, and rightly so. For the HRC team it will be important to gather useful data; it’s hard to expect notable results from the two riders this weekend.