Rea: We have a few items to try, but nothing that will revolutionise the bike
Small improvements to the Kawasaki ZX10-RR is the aim for Jonathan Rea during WorldSBK testing, the first of which begins next week at Jerez for the six-time world champion.
Looking back at the 2021 season, speed and acceleration were key areas where Kawasaki seemed to lose out compared to rivals Yamaha and Ducati, especially at circuits with plenty of slow speed corners - Navarra and Most fall into that category. Rea failed to pick up wins at either of those venues; it should be added.
With WorldSBK having strict regulations regarding engine development, gaining significant speed or acceleration in just one off-season is very unlikely for Kawasaki, which is why Rea pointed out that their testing items for 2022 are nothing that will ‘revolutionise the bike’.
Instead, Rea is focused on improving the complete ZX10-RR package which includes aerodynamics and the chassis, as his and the team’s first test is in seven days' time.
Speaking to Crash.net, Rea said: "Well we’re back on the bike in ten (now seven) days time in Jerez. But I can’t keep talking about the speed or acceleration issues because that comes from engine development and with such strict rules and regulations we can’t expect to be much faster.
"We have to work all over the bike, aerodynamics, chassis set-up and myself to find out how I can be better.
"We have a few test items to try, but nothing that’s going to completely revolutionise the bike. But it’s small steps.
"When we’ve been beaten this year it’s not been by ten seconds or anything, so there’s no reason to panic or start thinking we need to find half a second a lap. It’s small margins that we need to gain. I’m pretty convinced that we can."
