WSBK: Is Yamaha the Biggest Threat to Rea and Kawasaki in 2019?

With the start of the new World Superbike season just around the corner. There is quiet optimism in the icy winter air that 2019 will be the closest and most competitive season that we have seen for a number of years. With Ducati racing their new V4 Panigale, BMW fielding a full factory team for the first time since the start of the decade and Honda putting in a factory effort to try and re-establish themselves as race winners in the series, everything looks set for a great season ahead.

However, it isn’t as simple as that. Ducati has a new bike to sort out along with a new rider to the series in Alvaro Bautista and it might take him some time to learn the bike along wit the fact that there are 4 tracks on the calendar he hasn’t seen before.

Chaz Davies on the other hand has been hampered by back pain during winter testing and it is questionable weather he will be 100% fit for Phillip Island. BMW find themselves in a similar situation with a brand new bike and a rider in Tom Sykes that has spent the past 8 seasons on a Kawasaki that suited his riding style. This means that both he and the team might not be ready to fight for race wins until later in the season.

Yamaha, meanwhile, don’t have that issue. With the backing of Yamaha Motor Europe – Pata Yamaha are in their third season running the R1 Yamaha’s and have kept the same rider lineup during that time in Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark. With both team and riders making huge strides during the 2018 season, van der Mark finished an impressive 3rd in the championship, he and team mate Lowes both picked up race wins and a total of 14 podiums between them.

Yamaha are fast and consistent

So where does this leave us? If we look at testing then we are painted with a picture that has many hidden layers. While Jonathan Rea has been setting incredibly fast lap times – both van der Mark and especially Lowes were putting in consistent and strong runs. Lowes has looked the more consistent of the pair, in the test at Portimao he posted three lap times in the 1:41 bracket only bettered by Rea (4) and if you look at the lap times that were under the 1:42 marker then both Lowes and Rea are head and shoulders up on the rest of the field both posting quicker laps and more consistent laps than next best van der Mark.

As we head into the start of the new season, it looks as though Yamaha are the closest challenger to both Jonathan Rea and Kawasaki but they mustn’t get complacent on what testing has shown as once the racing starts the talking stops. The team and the riders must build upon what was a strong 2018 and so far an confidence building winter.

At a Yamaha Motorsport Conference in Sepang today, both Lowes and van der Mark looked quietly confident as they stated that they wanted to fight for podiums at every race and expect to challenge for the top three in the championship and with two, young hungry riders in their team that are ever improving then 2019 could prove to be their best chance for Yamaha to win some championship silverware.

2019 could through up many surprises but one thing we do know is that Jonathan Rea will be just as tough to beat as ever as he aims to become the first ever 5 time World Superbike champion.