Jonathan Rea: ‘I really believe in everyone inside Yamaha, I trust it will come good’

Jonathan Rea has a chance to kickstart his 2024 WorldSBK campaign in a big way this weekend at Assen.

Completely lost in Phillip Island, steps forward were made by Rea and Yamaha in Catalunya. 

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However, this weekend should see that happen once again as the six-time world champion holds a stunning record of 17 wins around the Dutch circuit.

Part of Rea’s adaptation to Yamaha includes working with a new crew chief in the form of former team-mate Andrew Pitt.

Discussing the biggest challenges with his switch from Kawasaki to the R1, Rea said:  “It’s hard to answer. Just getting familiar with a completely new crew, understanding how they work and them understanding how I work. It’s step by step.

“I really believe in everyone inside Yamaha. They’re great people, intelligent people. I had a relationship with my previous crew chief that spanned nine years.

“There were growing pains in that relationship as well. There were times it wasn’t great but generally, for example, if you said ‘left’, with that kind of relationship, they telepathically knew how far left.

“With a completely new crew that’s worked with different riders, it’s very hard for them to understand me without words. 

“In the previous rounds, I spent a long time in the pit box trying to explain my feelings clearly. That’s also new for me, and that can also be a big problem; a rider talking too much as you can create more and more problems from a technical point of view. 

“It’s just step by step. I think that situation coupled with a few issues we’ve faced, and difficulties, the challenges of Phillip Island and crashes, it’s been tough to put everything together, but I do feel like it’s going to come.”

While the relationship with Pitt is a good one, Rea is coming from a partnership with Pere Riba that won six titles together.

But success aside, the two share similarities which Rea feels is a good thing: “They’re more similar than you can imagine, to be honest. Both are very clever.

“I was going to say Andrew’s worth ethic is incredible and he’s so busy and ruthlessly competitive, always trying to find something, and he’s pushing all the crew to do their best.

“Andrew’s pushing the electronics department, the chassis department, to improve, but Pere was the same.

“The biggest difference is I worked with Pere for nine seasons and sometimes I didn’t have to speak.

“When you look at the rider market, for example, Toprak went the other way but took his crew chief, but they then have to learn another bike.

“Would it have been an advantage to have Pere by my side now? Not sure. Maybe from communication and understanding me, but he doesn’t understand the R1.

“There’s pros and cons to everything. The relationship with Andrew is really good. I trust him and trust in Yamaha that it’s going to come good.

“Been a difficult start, to be honest. We have to have some faith. Keep my head up and hopefully we can get back to some normality here.”