Riba: To be fast 'a rider needs to understand the limit, feeling of the bike'

As Jonathan Rea gets set for a tilt at WorldSBK title #7 in 2022, crew chief Pere Riba has detailed several key areas that a rider needs in order to be competitive. 

Rea, who was bettered by Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu in 2021, marking the first time Rea has not won the Superbike championship since joining Kawasaki seven years ago, is far and away the series’ most successful rider. 

Most championships, race wins, podiums and fastest laps are all categories dominated by the Northern Irishman, with only pole position remaining the one that Rea is not leading - soon-to-be BSB rider Tom Sykes has 51 compared to Rea’s 35. 

What all this means is that Rea has consistently been one of the better motorcycle racers of his generation, however, when delving deeper into what exactly makes a rider this prolific can often be unknown to those looking on from afar.

When talking about what a rider needs in order to be fast, there’s perhaps no one better than Riba, a former rider and current crew chief to Rea. 

Speaking to WorldSBK.com, Riba said: "One of the most important things of course, because it is the top of the pyramid, is that if you want to develop a bike, it’s the rider."

"This is the most important thing. Then another very important thing is that the bike has been ridden for a feeling that this is something that many engineers and people forget. 

"Of course, you have to link 100% the feeling of the rider, because every single rider requests something different in terms of feeling, because there are many, many points for the rider that make them this kind of feeling. 

"Of course, you have to put them in technical numbers, in a technical way of course. But a rider without understanding the limit, understanding the feeling of the bike, it’s impossible to be fast. 

"This is the key point from my philosophy of a crew chief. When I was a rider; this is in my opinion, there were two or three keys. The first one is to understand the feelings of the rider, what you have to make in the bike to give this kind of feeling the rider requests. 

"The second one is mainly to keep the brain of the rider in a very good shape. You have to understand each rider is different. Some riders like a warm feeling. Some riders are colder, and they don’t care. But you need to understand what the rider needs."