Honda rider Jake Dixon on BMW and Ducati: “It’s a joke!”

The round at Magny-Cours was Honda’s best race weekend in this year’s Superbike World Championship, although the Japanese motorbike giant is still languishing at a very low level: Jake Dixon’s 10th on the grid, the Englishman’s 11th place in the first race and Somkiat Chantra’s 14th place in the second race – the best results on offer – are hardly cause for wild celebration.

At least things seem to be improving in small steps since Honda Racing Corporation established a test team based in Europe and brought Jonathan Rea, the most successful Superbike rider, on board as an official test rider.

“Honda is constantly working to improve the bike. It’s also clear that it hasn’t been enough so far. But I’m not fully in the loop about everything they’re working on,” regular rider Jake Dixon insisted in an interview with SPEEDWEEK.com editor-in-chief Ivo Schützbach. “The test team in England is driving development forward; that at least speeds up the process. Everyone is aware that we’re lagging behind. I hope we’ll get new parts for 2027. However, I don’t really want to think about it too much.”

In the battle for position at the Circuit de Nevers in the heart of France, the 30-year-old was able to experience his rivals’ motorbikes up close for the first time.

“When I was riding behind a Ducati, I had to laugh. It’s a joke how smoothly they can ride the bike. That’s on a completely different level. Even BMW are way ahead of us. They’re super-fast on the straights and they come out of the corners much better too, which makes life easier for them,” marvelled Dixon. “We, on the other hand, have to stretch ourselves enormously just to shave off a tenth of a second here and there. If everything were perfect, we could finish in the top five with our package – roughly on a par with Alex. In my opinion, he’s doing an outstanding job with the Bimota and getting the absolute most out of it.”

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