Jonathan Rea announces retirement
After 17 years, more than 450 race starts, 119 wins and six championships in the Motul FIM Superbike World Championship, Jonathan Rea will retire at the end of the 2025 season. The 38-year-old from Ballymena in Northern Ireland announced in August that this year’s WorldSBK season would be his last.
In a video posted to social media, Rea said he’d been thinking about retirement for a long time before making the decision.
“This sport has been everything to me. From growing up as a child in Northern Ireland, dreaming of racing bikes, to standing on the top step of the WorldSBK Championship, winning races and Championships. Throughout my career, I’ve only ever had one goal: to win. That mentality defined who I was. I never raced to make up the numbers. I raced to be the best.
“The time has come to listen to my body, my mind and, most importantly, my instinct. If I can’t race to win, then it’s time to step away. I have the same love for the sport I had on day one in this present day.
“I’m incredibly proud of what I’ve achieved during my lengthy career. Six World Championships, more than 100 race wins, and so many other accolades along the way. These are some records that I never imaged could be possible.”
Continuing, Rea explained that what will endure from his time in WorldSBK is the people he met, the battles he had with rivals and the friendships he made along the way, adding the importance of family who helped him achieve the highs of the sport, and also supported him during the lows.
"It’s not the records, the trophies or the race wins. It’s the people and the memories I take with me forever,” Rea said. “I’ve had the honour of working with some incredible teams, sponsors and engineers during my career. You’ve all been part of this journey and I’m incredibly grateful that you let me live my dream.
“To my family, mum and dad, brother and sisters, thank you so much for all your sacrifice during the early days of my career.
“To my wife, Tarsh, and our kids, Jake and Tyler, thank you so much for being my anchor and my rock during all the good and tougher times.
“To all my rivals and competitors during my career, thanks for making medig deep. I was such a better rider because of you guys.
“To all my fans, thank you for all your incredible support and loyalty; all the support during good times and bad times have really helped me through and given me the career I’ve dreamed of.”
“Whilst I’m stepping away from full-time racing, this isn’t goodbye. I’ll always be part of this sport, just in a different way. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for everything. It’s been one hell of a ride. I’ll see you in the paddock.”
Obviously, the mention of ‘full-time’ racing in that last paragraph leaves the door ajar for a return to WorldSBK as a wildcard or substitute rider in the future.
Speaking later, at the press conference for the Magny-Cours round in September, Rea admitted he had no plans for the coming year, but knows he’ll miss the competition and desire for victory.
“It’s exciting because I’m jumping into the unknown in 2026, whatever that may be,” Rea said.
“I’ll miss the burning fire inside to win, the team working and many things; thousands of things that are incredible in this job.”
Starting in Supersport
While he made an indelible mark in World Superbikes, Rea’s international start came in the Supersport World Championship after some notable domestic success.
As a junior, Rea was strong in motocross before making his circuit racing debut in the 2003 British 125cc Championship as a 16-year-old. Two years later, Rea joined the British Superbike Championship (BSB) with Honda. After a solid, but winless debut season, Rea returned to BSB in 2006, achieving regular top ten finishes and his first podium. A first BSB race win came in 2007, when Rea ran with defending title holder Ryuichi Kiyonari all season, but ultimately finished runner-up in the championship.
Drafted into Ten Kate Honda’s World Supersport team in 2008, Rea’s three-year deal would see him cut his teeth in the 600cc class as team mate to Australia’s Andrew Pitt before stepping up to Superbikes for 2009 and 2010.
With three wins and three other podiums, only bad luck prevented Rea from winning the Supersport World Championship on debut. In the same year (2008), he entered the final WorldSBK round for Ten Kate as a wildcard. Qualifying on the front row, Rea finished fourth in Race 1 and 15th in Race 2.
In 2009, his first full season in WorldSBK, Rea secured two wins and six other podiums for Ten Kate Honda, then four wins and six podiums in 2010. Rea’s 2011 and 2013 seasons were interrupted by injury, but he still managed to win races in those years, followed by his strongest championship run to date in 2014, when he finished third overall.
In 2012, Rea also made a couple of starts in MotoGP, with eight and seventh place finishes for Repsol Honda.
The Green Dynasty
In 2015, Rea joined the Kawasaki Racing Team, replacing Loris Baz. Changing from the Honda CBR1000RR to the Kawasaki ZX-10RR brought immediate results; Rea won his first race in green at Phillip Island, then an incredible run of podium finishes for the next nine rounds that included eleven race wins. Finishing the 2015 WorldSBK championship more than 130 points ahead of the runner-up, Rea would be champion again in 2016, but by a slimmer margin.
Dominant again in 2017, Rea would equal Carl Fogarty’s record of four WorldSBK titles in 2018 in a season that saw him go unbeaten for the final six rounds.
In 2019, despite the introduction of the Sunday ‘Superpole Race’ that made it harder to gain – and defend – titles, Rea won again, despite an early charge by a Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista.
The COVID-interrupted 2020 WorldSBK season saw Rea challenged by Ducati’s Scott Redding, but the Ulsterman prevailed to take his sixth straight title.
Tough Times
While some riders had unlocked the secret of beating Rea on occasion or in small bursts, Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu would be the first to be able to do so consistently. In the 2021 WorldSBK season, Razgatlioglu would score only one more race win than Rea, but more regular podiums saw him take the title by 15 points.
In 2022, it was Alvaro Bautista’s turn to taste championship glory, after botching his first run in 2019. Rea would finish third overall in 2022, despite six race wins and only one finish outside the top five.
Bautista went back-to-back in 2023, but Rea went backwards, with only one race win for the season. Third in the championship again, Rea finished 258 points behind Bautista and 182 behind runner-up Razgatlioglu.
Moving to Blue
In 2024, Rea made only the second change of his WorldSBK career. A high-profile switch to the factory Pata Yamaha Prometeon team in the off-season saw Rea replace Razgatlioglu who’d gone to BMW. Unfortunately, the YZF-R1 proved a harder beast to master than the ZX-10RR, and Rea would finish his first season in blue a lowly 13th in the championship, with no wins and one podium finish.
This year, Rea’s championship was compromised before it began, with a foot injury in the pre-season test keeping hm on the sidelines until Round 4 at Cremona. Since then, Rea has achieved a pair of top six finishes at Donington, with another sixth at Magny Cours behind the 2025 highlights at time of writing.
An Amazing Record
Despite the past couple of seasons not being up to his standards, Jonathan Rea will leave WorldSBK with a remarkable record. As of the Magny-Cours round in September, Rea has completed more than 8,000 race laps, accruing more than 6,300 championship points since that first start back in 2008. His 462 race starts are more than any other rider, of which he’s achieved points finishes in 405.
Rea remains the only rider in WorldSBK with more than 100 wins. Of his 119 victories, 104 were achieved with Kawasaki. The remainder came on a Honda, with Rea winless on the Yamaha at time of writing. Those wins are part of a podium total that numbers 264, which means Rea has finished on the podium in more than half of the races he’s started.
With more championship, race wins, podiums and fastest laps than any other rider in the 38-year history of WorldSBK, the only record not belonging to Rea is pole positions. His 44 pole starts are second to former team mate Tom Sykes, who has 51.
Rea will depart WorldSBK as a great of the sport and perhaps the greatest of all time.
