Rea: “I don’t understand my team or Kawasaki’s direction with rev limits”

After receiving a 250 rev increase earlier in the season, the same number of revs that were taken away from Ducati in the hope of bringing closing racing to the front of WorldSBK, Kawasaki were given a second helping prior to the Imola round. 

It means the Japanese manufacturer has so far been boosted by 500 revs this season, however, the factory KRT team have not been using the extra revs.

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Rea, who is still winless after 21 races in 2023, has had the pace to match the likes of Alvaro Bautista and Toprak Razgatlioglu during the early stages of races.

But it’s the second half where Rea and teammate Alex Lowes have often ran into trouble. 

Ducati have so far seen very little, if any drop off in performance as Bautista has continued to dominate, while Axel Bassani came close to a maiden win on Sunday. 

Surprised at why Kawasaki has not chosen to use the extra revs, Rea said: "I have no idea, technically, you'll have to speak with my team. 500rpm helps as you can be more aggressive with the final gearing, be much shorter with the acceleration as you have more over-rev. 

"I guess with the camshaft, this will be a better spec so maybe we'll generate more power but I don't know. I'm surmising now, so speak with the team. 

"I don’t understand my team or Kawasaki’s direction with this though, because obviously, we need to get concession points first before we can get this final piece. 

"But the idea is to be on the podium and trying to fight for race wins which don't get the concession points needed; we need to be competitive. 

"I hope we don’t get it because I hope that means we’re doing a good job and don’t need them. It’s a strange one."