Pata Honda's Jonathan Rea is preparing for another spate of World Superbike tests in Spain next week and hopes that all the development his team did over the year, especially with the electronics strategies, will benefit him for 2014.
The Isle of Man resident is pleased with how testing has gone so far and he has been able to clock some fast times, but he insists that there is still more work to do, especially with new electronics engineer Massimo Neri who has joined the team from Goldbet BMW.
Rea is still not fully fit after breaking his leg at the Nurburgring a few months ago and had to finish the season watching the final rounds from his sofa. He is still in a lot of pain and continues to have treatment everyday - for now the Castletowni resident is concentrating on building up data for his team so they can work on the bike throughout the winter months.
"We have new staff who are coming in who are helping with electronic strategies which is good. This year we have been developing the bike, and hope we can capitalise on our development that we did. Honda Europe are throwing the kitchen sink at the bike and we are full speed ahead to get the best out of it," said Rea, speaking to bikesportnews.com.
"In Jerez I was not really fit to ride, but I did because I wanted to give the team some direction. Aragon was better, physically I was not perfect but I was happy with the lap times I did. There is still a lot of work to do and we have got three days of testing in Jerez before we go into the winter ban, but then we will give the guys at base some work to do.
Rea won't go under the knife again but says his leg is still causing a bit of trouble - not through the break itself but beause of the muscle wasteage that is associated with athletes being unable to train at 100 per cent while injured.
"No extra surgery is required on my leg, but I have a lot of pain in my knee because of the muscle wastage on one side of my leg, but I just need to man up and push past the pain. On the bike I am ok, just walking around is when it hurts. But right now I am a full time dad and doing rehab everyday too."
