The results that could make or break Jonathan Rea’s Honda WorldSBK return

Jonathan Rea’s retirement from WorldSBK has lasted a total of one round, but what can we expect from his return to racing at Portimao?

Rea will return to the World Superbike grid on 27–29 March at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve for his first race since joining Honda as its official test rider. The six-time champion will replace Jake Dixon, who is still recovering from the injuries he picked up during testing in Australia in February.

Although Rea’s story in World Superbike is largely one of domination, and although his history with Honda is a successful one (15 wins across six seasons, and he still has Honda’s most recent dry weather win from back in 2014), the last years of his career saw a decline in results with Yamaha.

Rea only achieved one podium in his time aboard the YZF-R1, and scored no rostrum finishes in 2025, his second year on the bike and a season in which Andrea Locatelli was able to win a race and finish fourth in the championship.

In fact, Rea’s average finish in 2025, from the races he did finish (i.e. excluding the races he missed and those in which he registered a DNF), was 10th. To put this into some kind of context, during Rea’s title winning seasons at Kawasaki there were only 14 races from six seasons that he finished outside the top three.

So, coming from that kind of downturn in results in his last two seasons, how can Rea be expected to slot into the 2026 grid on the Honda?

Comparing performance

The only race in 2025 that didn’t see either Xavi Vierge or Iker Lecuona finish as the best Honda was the opening race at Magny-Cours. On that occasion, Lecuona was injured and being replaced by Sergio Garcia, who finished 11th while Vierge crashed out.

Even with that 11th place from Garcia in the list of Honda’s best results from last year, the manufacturer comes out with an average best finish for 2025 of righth, which is better than Rea’s 10th average. You could exclude Rea’s Cremona Round from last year, given he was still clearly far from physically 100% at that stage, but even then Rea’s average only climbs to ninth.

From this you could draw two conclusions. One would be that 2025 Jonathan Rea was worse than 2025 Xavi Vierge or 2025 Iker Lecuona. Another would be that the 2025 Yamaha R1 was not as competitive as the 2025 Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP.

From those you could make predictions about what Rea’s performance level will be in Portimao next weekend when he replaces Dixon. If you believe the Honda was more competitive than the Yamaha last year, you might suggest it has held that advantage into 2026, and therefore Rea’s performance will improve in Portugal compared to last year based on the better potential of his new motorcycle.

On the other hand, you could say that Rea performed worse, on average, than Honda’s best rider in 2025, and therefore will not be able to extract as much from the Fireblade as either Lecuona or Vierge could last year. 

Is Portimao the perfect place?

Historically speaking, we know Rea is an expert at Portimao. He’s won 13 races there, and was on the podium in at least one race there in every visit before moving to Yamaha, with the exception of 2008 when he made his World Superbike debut at the track. So, his own potential at Portimao is evidently strong. 

Perhaps that makes Portimao the perfect place for Rea to really show what the Honda is capable of. If a rider of Rea’s World Superbike credentials cannot drag strong results out of the Fireblade at Portimao, what combination of rider and track would be necessary? To counter that, he has very little time on the bike due to the bad weather throughout pre-season testing and at the Portimao test on 9–10 March, so bad results could be explained by that, or by that his winter was largely spent recovering the condition of the knee he injured in Jerez last October.

But that is what makes this Rea fill-in so interesting, perhaps. For every argument that he should have a good weekend, there is a counterpoint that suggests three subpar results would be explainable. Even knowing exactly what is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad’ is difficult, but, based on the above numbers, it seems we should be expecting something between seventh and 10th for Rea on the Honda at Portimao. Better than that, great, for him and Honda; worse, and it’ll be a disappointing weekend for both parties.