Jonathan Rea on 2026 WorldSBK plans: “I don't want to end my career on a low”

Jonathan Rea says he doesn’t know what “options” will be available for him in WorldSBK in 2026, but that he wants “to be competitive”.

The six-time World Superbike Champion is winless since Race 1 at Most in 2023, his last win on Kawasaki, and has scored just one podium since he moved to Yamaha at the beginning of last year.

Rea’s 2025 preseason looked promising, but a crash in testing in Australia saw him suffer a complicated foot and ankle injury, involving multiple fractures, which left him on the sidelines for the opening races of the season.

Returning at the Italian Round at the beginning of May, Rea picked up his first points of the season at Most last time out.

But for a rider with 119 WorldSBK race wins to his name, anything less than being competitive for race wins will be unsatisfactory, and 38-year-old Rea is sure that, were his career to end now, he would be retiring on a negative note.

“I don't want to end my career on a low,” Jonathan Rea told the German publication Speedweek.

“I want to be competitive. [...] I don't know yet what options I'll have.

“My idea is that I make a decision after Donington. If nothing exciting comes up, I'm prepared to stay home.

“But I want to know beforehand how competitive I can be with this bike and my crew. For me, this is unfinished business.

“The road can go either way: first I have to find out if I'm interested in continuing as I do now.

“And Yamaha has to find out if they want to keep me on board.”