'Most difficult season of my whole career...' - Rea reflects on his 2024 WorldSBK season
Yesterday at 09:24 AM
Jonathan Rea labels the 2024 season as the 'most difficult' of his career as he sits 13th in the Championship.
The 2024 season has been Jonathan Rea's worst year in 16 full seasons in the World Superbike Championship.
After moving from the Kawasaki Racing Team to Pata Prometeon Yamaha for the 2024 season there were hopes of a seventh World Championship for Rea. However, after a promising preseason, the only notable result for the Northern Irishman in 2024 has been a third-place finish at Donington Park.
With three races remaining in the 2024 season Rea enters the final round in 13th place in the Championship. The 37-year-old could still finish ninth in the standings, but for the first time in his career, he could likely finish outside of the top ten in the standings.
Ahead of the end of a difficult season, Rea said: "I'm looking forward to the weekend. Parts of me are really excited about Jerez and trying to cap off the season in a good way, and then a part of me wants to completely forget about this disappointing and challenging season as a whole and re-focus on '25.
"It's nice because we're coming from a good weekend at Estoril. From what I understand, the base setup we have now is very similar to when first rode the bike last year in November. With all the changes we've made, we've come back to a happy base setting. I feel like I'm more optimistic going into here than I was going into Estoril, but in the end, Estoril turned out to be a positive one.
"In all honesty, when I first rode the Yamaha, I loved the feeling of the bike. It wasn't a full grid at the test, but I still felt quite fast. I couldn't imagine this being the most difficult season of my whole career. We know it's challenging times, but I really feel better days are coming. I know Yamaha is working really hard in the background to improve the bike in all different aspects.
"I feel there are reasons to be optimistic that we can be more competitive next year. It's just piecing all the bits together, all the marginal gains. I'll work on myself, trying to improve, because I don't feel the team, or the bike are getting my full potential right now."
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