‘Certain things have changed’: Jake Dixon on 2026 Honda WorldSBK regression

At certain times in the past two seasons, Honda has been able to contest for WorldSBK top-sixes with its factory riders, but in 2026 it has regressed and now struggles to get into the top-10.

A 10th place for Jonathan Rea at the UK WorldSBK (10–12 July) in the Superpole Race was Honda’s best result of the season so far, but the two full-time riders – Jake Dixon and Somkiat Chantra – weren’t in the points in any of the three races at Donington.

Rea spoke afterwards, saying that his performance was the result of maximising the Honda package, which Dixon agreed with when he spoke to the media a few minutes later.

“Yes,” Dixon said, speaking after race 2 at Donington, when asked if he agreed with Rea’s assessment that his performance was the maximum the Honda is capable of in WorldSBK at the moment.

“Because if you look in FP3,” he continued, “we were all sort of doing the same thing, I was seventh in there. 

“I went faster than I did in qualifying, in free practice. 

“I think Jonathan [Rea] did a couple of tenths quicker than me. 

“On an overall lap time perspective, I don’t think there’s much more in what we’re doing. Jonathan just, luckily, could start a bit higher up. 

“Overall rhythm, he might’ve been one- or two-tenths quicker, but when you start at the back you stay at the back. 

“Jonathan’s a bit more in the middle and I think he maximised what he had around him. 

“So, there’s no more in it. 

“There’s certain things on the bike that have changed from last year that are not allowing us to, I feel, execute what they were having last year.”

When asked what has changed on the bike, Dixon replied: “Take what you want from it, but it’s a number of things on the bike. 

“Not many things have changed, what you can do chassis-wise, so just take what you want from that.”