The Northern Irishman is now statistically the greatest World Superbike rider of all-time after clinching his fourth-straight title at Magny-Cours, while tallying up his 132nd podium and his 69th race victory in Argentina last weekend.

Jonathan Rea drops wheelies on final lap

Superbikes Rea's 'icy cool brain' helps him extend championship lead – Full Throttle 21/09/2020 AT 20:25

Crutchlow and Rea raced against each other in Britain and briefly in WSBK, with the former departing to MotoGP with Tech3 Yamaha in '11 while Rea remained in Superbikes.

Rea believes his career path has been "better" than Crutchlow's.

"It is the right path. I feel that my path is the better path also," Rea told Autosport.

I'm a four-time world champion in Superbikes. In motorcycle terms, one of the most popular athletes in the UK. I'm really happy with my life in general.

"I really respect his [Crutchlow's] achievements. He has done incredible. He is one of the fastest guys in MotoGP. He is one along with the top three or top four.

"Sometimes I look to him and I feel like I can do that. I can do better. I'm not jealous. I'm proud of him.

"I used to race and beat Cal - certainly more than he beat me. Now he is doing so well in MotoGP.

"I'm really proud, because I could race against him and now he is doing so good."

Rea praises Argentinean circuit: 'The track's incredible, it's so fun to ride'

In the last 10 years, only 2009 WSBK champion Ben Spies and Crutchlow made it on to factory machinery in MotoGP.

Rea made two starts in MotoGP with Honda in 2012, and was linked with a works ride for '19, but said all other WSBK frontrunners "never got good teams" when they switched to the premier class.

He used the example of Eugene Laverty, who earned a MotoGP graduation in 2015 in a promising move, only to end up switching from what was expected to be a competitive Honda to a two-year old Ducati in '16 with the same Aspar outfit.

"They went to MotoGP with factory bikes inside the satellite team," Rea said of Spies and Crutchlow.

"They had the old bikes from every season. Tech3 is a good team. They received the bikes from Yamaha.

All the other riders that are gone from Superbikes after that never got good teams.

"Look at Laverty - the same level as Crutchlow.

"They were rivals in British championship then Cal went to Superbikes. Eugene went to 250s [now Moto2].

"They were rivals again in World Supersport together. They were the rivals coming through. Cal wasn't my rival.

"I was the rival of [Leon] Haslam and [Leon] Camier. Cal wasn't there. He was not the front guy.

"Eugene went there on Aspar Honda, the cheap Honda that were supposed to be amazing.

"It was terrible and almost ended his career.

"From there he went to a two-year old Ducati. Unfortunately he never got the opportunity.

"Cal was the last guy to leave this paddock on a competitive machine."

Catalunya Davies wins Race 2 in Catalunya as Gerloff takes maiden podium 20/09/2020 AT 14:18