RiderTua.com – Jonathan Rea ‘s racing debut with Yamaha did not meet expectations after a promising pre-season test. The start of the season at Phillip Island was a disaster for the 37 year old rider, while his new partner Andrea Locatelli managed to climb the podium twice. Want to imitate Toprak, but the Turkish rider has moved to BMW…😁
Only in 15th place in last Tuesday’s test at Phillip Island, Rea was 1.455 seconds behind the best time. In qualifying on Saturday, the rider from Northern Ireland was only in 11th position on the grid, 0.974 seconds behind first place.
Jonathan Rea : I tried to imitate other Yamaha riders but had difficulty
Jonathan Rea’s crew completely rebuilt the Yamaha R1 from Tuesday to Friday, and again Friday to Saturday. And again from Saturday to Sunday because it couldn’t eliminate the massive vibrations in the rear wheels.
In the first race, Rea lost more than 20 seconds during his pit stop and therefore only finished in 17th place, losing almost 38 seconds. But even without the crash, he would have finished a maximum of 12th.
In the superbole race, Rea only finished 10th (+5.535 seconds). And in the second main race, where he competed for the first time last weekend, Tatiana’s husband suffered a bad highside while in 5th place, which was then taken by ambulance with bruises all over his body and caused the race to be stopped (red flag). .
After the first 3 races earlier this season, Johnny surprisingly did not score any points. But don’t underestimate Rea or Yamaha based on their performance in Australia. The unique layout of the track at Phillip Island, the new asphalt which is very grippy and aggressive also contributes to the special nature of this track. In addition, tire supplier Pirelli only has hard rear tires for racing at the start of the season. This would all be different if the race held on March 22-24 continued with the start of Europe on the smooth track of Barcelona.
A week earlier, tests were carried out at the Circuit de Catalunya Montmelo on Thursday and Friday (14-15 March). For Rea, it’s a chance to improve his basic Yamaha set-up and get on track for the rest of the season. “We can’t test anything during a race weekend. We can’t test something on one bike and then jump to a second bike and try a different set-up. We only have one bike, so we lose. What do we want to do in FP3 that “only 20 minutes? We can’t change the swing arm, we can barely even change the tire,” said Rea.
The rider from the Pata Yamaha team added, “At the Jerez test, my bike worked amazingly with my racing rhythm, I will fight for the podium. I wasn’t very good at the Portimao test, but it was enough to enter the top 5 there too. Everything is right “It was completely different at Phillip Island. The type of corner, the tyres, the level of grip and we were in trouble.”
“My previous bike suited my riding style quite well. I looked at what other Yamaha riders were doing to get the best out of the R1. We tried to copy this, but ran into various difficulties. Once the bike becomes smoother and easier for me to ride, my times will improve ,” concluded Rea, who raced for Kawasaki for 9 seasons until the end of 2023.
