Jonathan Rea says quality at all-time high ahead of Superbike World Championship – ‘The field has never been so deep’

Jonathan Rea believes the overall standard of riders within the Superbike World Championship is at an all-time high before the 2023 season commences on Saturday.

The first race of the calendar year takes place at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Australia, and the Kawasaki rider highlighted the quality which Danilo Petrucci and Remy Gardner will add to the field this season.

“The field has never been so deep,” Rea said in an exclusive interview with Eurosport.

“I don’t know how much faster it will be at the front, but I certainly know that you could be penalised on a bad day because that group between fifth and 10th is deeper than ever.

“You have to be on your A game. So, it’s up to us to put a good year together, try to minimise our weak days and be strong, healthy and fit throughout the year. We’ll see what comes in October.”

Rea detailed the steps which his Kawasaki team are taking to make it a more competitive fight for the riders’ championship after Alvaro Bautista stormed to victory in 2022.

“I think we can really improve,” he explained.

“I expect to see some electronic upgrades during the season, but the atmosphere is incredible within the team.

“There’s like a renewed confidence amongst us. Of course, the main area last year when I was especially competing with Alvaro was power, and you can’t just magically find that with the current regulations.

“So, it’s an area we’re trying to focus to maximise all our acceleration that we have. We are trying to make the electronics more manageable, more connected to my hand, less intrusive and it’s something that’s a step-by-step process. But I feel that we’re making some gains in those areas.”

The six-time champion revealed the areas where he hopes to improve in the upcoming campaign, and hopes to end races in stronger fashion.

“I hope we can continue to fight for race wins and continue to improve,” he added.

“My biggest handicap was at the end of races. I felt the intensity I was racing at for those first two-thirds of the race and when it came to the last third, I was with those guys, but I destroyed my front tyre.

“The rear tyre was dropping in performance and physically it became very hard then to manage the bike. In this year’s off-season, the focus was on that.”

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