“Not only the tyre”: Jonathan Rea on Honda WorldSBK-Suzuka 8 Hours disparity

Fresh off a third win at the Suzuka 8 Hours, and a fifth in a row for Honda, Jonathan Rea is unsure about the usual tyre argument for the disparity in performance between Honda’s factory bike in the showpiece Japanese endurance race and that of its WorldSBK machine.

While WorldSBK has used Pirelli tyres since 2004 (although that will change to Michelin next season), the Endurance World Championship allows teams to choose from a number of tyre manufacturers. The most popular among the top teams is Bridgestone, and it’s the Japanese brand that Honda has used in its last five Suzuka 8 Hours wins.

This key difference has often been used as the explanation for why Honda cannot win in WorldSBK (it hasn’t done so since 2016) but is so dominant at Suzuka.

HRC test rider Jonathan Rea, though, thinks there are more factors than that.

“No, it’s not only the tyre,” Rea said, speaking to the media ahead of the UK WorldSBK, where he's wildcarding this weekend.

“It’s a big race, Honda have a lot of experience, an amazing team, good riders. But [...] the biggest competition there is Yamaha, also the BMW EWC team were quite good this year, then the YART team and Yoshimura [SERT] – that’s the competition. 

“Talk about here in Superbike, in this current moment, you have to say that Ducati is the benchmark. There’s eight official bikes out there, more or less. 

“From 2026, Bimota, Ducatis, four official Yamahas – the competition level is high. 

“So, I don’t think we can say it’s just the tyre and the bike’s amazing with the Bridgestone tyre. Of course it’s different, different characters, and the tyre helps, I think it’s more suited to the bike, but that’s not the reason why they have success in EWC and Suzuka and not here in World Superbike Championship.”

Rea added that Honda is aware of where the CBR1000RR-R needs to improve, but multiple factors prevent quick action to develop the bike as required.

“We know what we need to improve,” he said.

“But it’s a production-based championship and you can’t just arrive like that. It’s not MotoGP where you can bring– I mean their engines are frozen, but [in WorldSBK] you can’t bring new chassis and new this and new that. 

“Also, talk about it as a pyramid from the top down, most of the resources are in MotoGP, then Superbike or EWC, let’s say, because they put a lot of emphasis on that. 

“We know the areas we need to work. I know that there’s two or three clear areas where we need to improve the bike, but it’s not [quick], you can’t just rock up at the next race and have everything ready, especially with the state of the rules.”