Jonathan Rea is relishing the chance to try out “new materials” to form the base package of the new Kawasaki ZX-10RR ahead of the 2019 World Superbike championship.

Rea returns to testing action this week at Jerez (January 23-24) before a second two-day test at Portimao (January 27-28) alongside the majority of his World Superbike rivals as the grid gets up to speed for the 2019 campaign.

Having run back-to-back comparisons with his 2018-specification Kawasaki with updated parts at the post-season Jerez test in November, Rea says further new parts will be assessed across the pre-season tests in order to confirm its base setup for 2019.

“Hopefully we can pick up where we left off at the last test. It has been a long, long winter but I arrive feeling refreshed and recharged after a lot of time at home,” Rea said having asked KRT to focus on making the bike’s top RPM smoother last November. “We expect some new material in preparation to build our base package at the start of the year.

“The tests at the end of last year were all about trying out different items and now we can put them all together and begin performance testing. I am excited because we were fast in Jerez in November, so I hope we can have some good weather this time.”

Kawasaki’s new ZX-10RR will feature a higher-revving stock version of its engine compared to the 2018 specification, produced by “finger follower valve technology” according to the Japanese manufacturer, in its bid to combat the current World Superbike technical regulations on capping maximum rev limits.