He has won more than any other rider competing in the production-based racing series, but as always happens in all good fairy tales, at some point comes the final chapter. An obligatory passage that for Jonathan Rea materialized when his six world championship titles and glory were already far away. Facilitating his exit from the scene was not so much his age as the numerous crashes that dotted his last championship. Some ruinous, like the one that occurred in the February winter tests at Phillip Island, others heavier on a psychological level like the one at Most last May. A sort of drop capable of breaking the camel's back and making it clear to the Northern Irishman what his future should be.
Absent in the first three rounds of 2025 due to the aftermath of his left foot injury and then never really able to read and interpret his Yamaha in the right way, the 38-year-old "disappeared" in the direct confrontation with teammate Andrea Locatelli, managing to achieve only two top 5s in an entire year: in Race 1 at Donington and in Race 2 at Aragon. Although marked by his non-attendance at the start of the World Championship, the overall standings are illustrative of his declining phase. Sixteenth overall with 83 points, compared to his pit neighbor's 310.
It was this massive gap that led him to lean toward a 2026 season still in SBK, but in another guise yet to be defined and unveiled to the world. In the midst of an inexorable downward parabola, the Ballymena rider did not even manage to take a lap of honor as he would have deserved. On the final weekend at Jerez de la Frontera after finishing on the ground on Saturday and then during the Superpole Race, instead of receiving applause and goodbyes, he was forced to watch his colleagues battle it out on the track from the pit lane and return home with a bruised right knee, for which he underwent surgery on the morning of Thursday, Oct. 30.
Admitted to Kings Bridge Private Hospital, the former Kawasaki rider was attended by Dr. Pooler Archbald. As he himself later revealed in a post on Instagram the surgery was successfully concluded and he will now be able to embark on the rehabilitation path ahead of the start of his new career, probably as a test rider.