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Retirement announcement


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Opinion, Aug 24

From WSBK:

Jonathan Rea (Pata Maxus Yamaha) announced his decision to retire from full-time racing at the end of the 2025 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship season recently, and the #65 has now spoken about decision in detail in a special sit-down interview that covered when he made the decision, what comes next, the goals for the final few rounds of the year and what WorldSBK means to the rider who broke countless records and re-wrote the history books throughout his career.

MAKING THE DECISION: “The catalyst was after my crash at Most… I did a small shoulder check. I could see the bike was coming at me and thought, ‘I don’t need this anymore’”

While Rea made the announcement ahead of the French Round, it was something he revealed had been brewing for a while. After an injury-hit start to the campaign, where he missed the first three rounds, the six-time Champion was one of several riders to crash in separate incidents in FP1 at Most and this fall was one of the catalysts for Rea to start making an ‘exit plan’ from racing.

Talking about how he came to the decision, the Ulsterman said: “I’ve been thinking about making the decision for longer than you’d imagine, to be honest. But the catalyst was after my crash at Most in Free Practice 1. I worked super hard to come back from the injury at Phillip Island. It was a really complicated injury. After recovering from that, going to Most at the chicane, I lost the rear again and while I was sliding, I did a small shoulder check. I could see the bike was coming at me and thought, ‘I don’t need this anymore’. That started sowing the seeds. I needed to think about an exit plan. In racing, you always think about what’s coming next, but I was thinking more, ‘I need to think how to stop’ and forget about what’s next in life. I was tired, injuries were taking their toll, I wasn’t as competitive as I want to be. It was a very, very tough decision, to be honest, because it’s all I’ve known all my career; all my life, more or less, since I was five years old and racing motocross, was waking up, trying to be competitive, trying to win races and now is the time to finally stop. For me, it’s the correct decision. I felt immediately at peace and as tough as it’s going to be in the next races, it’s going to be enjoyable. I just hope we can end in some way in WorldSBK that makes us feel fulfilled. It feels right and I’m looking forward to what life has on the other side.”