Rea: ‘I don’t need racing for the rest of my life’, hints at ambassador role
The six-time WorldSBK champion will contest the next two seasons with Kawasaki after signing a multi-year deal midway through last season.
However, the 2024 season could potentially be Rea’s last as the Kawasaki star feels he’s in a good position to walk away from the sport should the Japanese manufacturer fail to entice him to continue.
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"I don't need racing for the rest of my life," said Rea when speaking to Speedweek.com. "Financially I am well secured, I have a nice life outside of racing.
"I enjoy my time on the bike and I like the competition. It will also depend on Kawasaki's ideas.
"After that I can think about retiring. I'm going to talk to Kawasaki about whether there's a job for me at the company after racing.
"As a test rider, as an ambassador, in team management, whatever. If I had to sit on the sofa with my wife all day every day, we would soon be divorced.
"I have to have something for me too. I'll probably need a year after my retirement to think about my future. Maybe we will go to Australia."
Rea finished third in the 2022 WorldSBK standings after recording his lowest single-season win total (6) since joining Kawasaki in 2015.
With that said, Rea was impressive at many rounds as he demonstrated incredible speed to secure the most pole positions (5) of 2022.
World champion Alvaro Bautista and Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu were the riders that ultimately finished ahead of Rea, who at times was visibly held back by a lack of in-race performance from his ZX10-RR machine.
Rea had been linked with a move to Ducati once again in 2022, but when asked if leaving Kawasaki was in his mind, the Northern Irishman said: "Not at the moment. Most of my good career memories come from my Kawasaki days. The time at Honda tired me."
