Kawasaki “more comfortable” without Jonathan Rea in WorldSBK 2025 - Guim Roda

Jonathan Rea’s departure from Kawasaki at the end of 2023 came after he won only one race in last year’s WorldSBK season. However, he is so far winless at Yamaha, while Kawasaki has won twice this year with Alex Lowes.

Rea left as the WorldSBK rules changed, giving Kawasaki back 500rpm it had lost during Rea’s domination between 2015–2020 when rev limits were changed to try to balance performance. New performance balancing rules are based on rider weight, and Kawasaki was also able to bring new engine components in 2024 that were prepared in 2023.

The result has been a ZX-10RR that, while still not matching the fastest bikes on the grid for straight line speed, is at less of a deficit to where it was last year.

“Technically, we can consider it an upgrade with reference to the past but still, the aim is to stay at the front,” Kawasaki Racing Team manager Guim Roda said of the ZX-10RR in 2024 to WorldSBK.com, but he also made note of the bike’s remaining limitations. “We need to be realistic; we have some limitations in terms of engine power and performance, according to the bike being the oldest one and we need to face this point and do the best possible.

“In Race 1 at Portimao, we saw Alex [Lowes] lose a lot of positions on the straight and he needed to make up time in the rest of the lap. Overall, we’re quite happy as we’re maximising the material we have. Still, we can improve, this is always possible but we need to find a way.”

The new engine components have helped Kawasaki’s performance, but it’s still not enough, according to Roda.

“We could introduce the parts that we prepared last year as a ‘super-concession’ but this is like peanuts for the real power we need. Of course, it’s a help but we improved in other areas to compensate this.

“We’ve worked a lot in electronics, suspension, bike setup according to new tyres, some polishing on the engine according to the rules. There’s a lot of work to be done, not just in one area.

“We did some items and also, the riders — a more important point — extract the maximum from that.”

While Alex Lowes has won twice so far this year, both wins coming at Phillip Island, Axel Bassani’s best result is a sixth place. With Lowes, who was generally second-best to Rea within the Kawasaki setup while they were teammates, out-performing Bassani so far this year, the question emerges of where Kawasaki would be now if Rea had stayed.

“It’s difficult to say,” Roda admitted. “Johnny [Jonathan Rea] was used to riding the bike in a [certain] way and, now, we’re extracting the bike in another way.

“I don’t know but it’s difficult to answer. Even last year, Alex [Lowes] was very close or on the same level as Johnny in terms of speed and he just basically missed the consistency, not the speed itself. This year, he improved his consistency, so when you can ride the bike at a lap time that it allows, you need to work on the consistency.

“We improved the speed a bit compared to last year but Alex has more consistency. The only way to fairly answer this is to have both on the same bike and then answer, but then you could make the same question with Toprak [Razgatlioglu] and Johnny at Yamaha.

“The bike needs to be well-suited to the rider, the rider needs to understand how to extract the most, so it’s a very complex question to answer.”

In fact, Roda said, there might be some attribution of Kawasaki’s improvement this year to the absence of Rea, and more specifically the absence of the pressure a rider with a record like Rea’s brings with them.

“It’s always a more comfortable way to work when the expectation is less and for sure, with a six-time World Champion in the team, the expectation is super high and this puts a lot of pressure to work on them,” Roda said.

“Doing the same job or a very good one this year, we’ve been more conservative in the expectations, so this makes the results we achieve worthy and people are happier as it’s on the way to the target we set at the beginning of the year.

“There’s a pressure when you take a rider like Johnny or Toprak or Alvaro [Bautista] who have already been World Champions and they can’t be less than that. With Alex, we’re building a good, solid base point and also with Axel [Bassani], so let’s see where we can arrive.”

If 2024 has seen some minor improvements for the Kawasaki Racing Team, the 2025 season is set to bring wholesale changes as the team switches from Kawasaki to Bimota.

With the new Bimota, which will use a frame designed and built by the Italian brand and the engine of the ZX-10RR, yet to be officially unveiled, Roda didn’t have too much to say about the new project.

“The bike is not going to be green,” he could at least confirm. “It will be a nice machine to ride with and I’m sure the fans will really enjoy this challenge that Kawasaki have decided to take. To bring a new brand to the Championship and be focused with the Superbike but I can’t explain too much more than this.

“There will be improvements within the team and we’ll have more areas to cover with new roles, but this is linked to find the right people to cover it.

“The budget— we have a wishlist to improve but we need to work step-by-step with Kawasaki and sponsors to see how it’s possible to grow up.”