When Jonathan Rea takes stock of his WSBK season, he may harbor regrets. The first of these is, of course, the loss of a world title that he had made his own during the previous six vintages. At the very least, this is what is called dominating your subject. But Toprak Razgatlioglu defeated him by being more or less as efficient with a Yamaha, but making fewer mistakes than the official Kawasaki. The Northern Irishman explains the reasons and asks Akashi engineers to raise the level of the ZX-10R even further as the best bike in the field was not, according to him, a Japanese brand...
Jonathan Rhea made an observation by evaluating its latest campaign in WSBK which may not make you smile Scott Redding. But that leaves the door open to a three-way battle for the 2022 crown, since Baptist returned to the ranks of Ducati… The six-time titleholder says thus: “ we have struggled this season. The Ducati was the fastest bike on the track, but now we are behind several manufacturers ". The Panigale V4R would therefore be the counterpart of the Desmosedici in MotoGP: all it would need is the right rider to make it happen...
That said, Jonathan Rhea also mentions the highest level of other manufacturers. He specifies : " Yamaha gave a new benchmark to improve the motorcycle, it's really motivating to enter the preseason ". This last mention is directly aimed at the engineers of the Akasahi brand who had missed the key moment of the offseason, with the consequences to be suffered throughout the 2021 financial year.
We will indeed remember that a year ago, Kawasaki had brought a new homologation model of the ZX-10RR in order to get more than the meager 14 600 rev / min authorized until now at maximum speed. For comparison: the Ducati Panigale V4R can currently take up to 16/min, the Honda CBR100RR-R is allowed to run at 1000/min, the BMW M15RR at 600/min and the Yamaha R1000 at 15 /min.
But the FIM did not authorize Kawasaki at a higher speed because the engine of the current machine has the same base as the previous model. “ Just because a manufacturer has a different piston in their engine doesn't mean it's a new engine for us, it's just a new component », had explained Scott Smart, technical director of the SBK.
With a Kawasaki at the limit, Jonathan Rea had to exceed his own
Since then, the problem has remained unsolved and Rea explains it thus on speedweek : " we need to improve the acceleration and top speed of our motorcycle. We suffered on tracks like Most and Navarra, where you have to accelerate from first gear. And on some sections we lost 0,3 seconds on the straights alone. This put me in crisis for the rest of the lap because I had to give everything to make a good time. This is what we need to focus on, there are areas where we can improve. We work closely with Kawasaki engineers to test certain parts from December ».
Indeed, from 15 at 17 december, in Jerez, Sale will try the new Ninja ZX-10RR with which he will aim to regain the world throne that was stolen from him Toprak Razgatlioglu, despite the numbers ultimately being in favor of the Northern Irishman: both won 13 victories, but the Kawasaki rider obtained two people additional podiums (30 to 28), completed more fast laps (14 to 9) and off he went 8 times from pole position compared to the 3rd of the Turkish opponent. But because of the four falls suffered, the six-time world champion finished in the general classification with 551 points, 13 less than Toprak.
« It was a very difficult season and I made a lot of mistakes Admitted Jonathan Rea. " I refuse to go out on track without a fight, sometimes I have crossed the line and paid the price. But it's a world championship, I have a lot of passion and motivation and I'm trying to win. We struggled this season ". On the circuit of Jerez, we will also see Honda for the first time with lecuona et Virgin and BMW with its quartet Van der Mark, Redding, Baz et Laverty...
