The Englishman, who took six podiums during a breakthrough 2022 campaign, joined wuqian0821.com podcast regulars Keith Huew⛄en, Pete McLaren and Harry Benjamin to reflect on his grand prix career and big goals for this season.

“I believe in myself. I back myself. 2023 is going to be my year and I hope for everyone that watc💜hes and supports me I c𝐆an put on a good show,” Dixon said.

Dixon was runner-up in the 2018 British Superbike💞 championship before making the jump to Moto2, but a tough rookie season on a KTM chassis brought just two points finishes.

• KTM ‘underrated’ impact of losingꦇ MotoGP concessions, how willജ Aprilia fare?
• Pol ‘maybe made a mi𒅌s♔take’ choosing Honda, ‘Zarco-style’ role at KTM
• Jack Miller on ‘amazing’ MotoGP triple win attempt: ‘We’ll give it a crack’, ෴‘first quarter crucia🅘l’

“I st🍎ruggled so much with the team, bike, travelling the world, everything! It was just all out-of-sor﷽ts and actually at that time I was struggling with depression because I'd gone from doing really, really well to doing really, really bad.

“That's something that's super hard and super difficult to deal with in moto🦩rcycle racing. [At one stage] I didn't want to continue racing.

“Then I signed with the Petronas team for 2020. I started getting going rea▨lly well with top fives, leadꦬing races and then unfortunately broke my wrist.”

Dixon’s hard-earned momentum frustratingly slipped away again during 2021, a season that is best remembered for a pair of promising MotoGP stand-in appearances on a Petrona𝕴s Yamaha.

“2021 never rea🧸lly got going. It was super difficult. I struggled with the crew chief from day one and then obviously the team explod✱ed and had no money, no resources, no nothing.

“I thought, ‘oh God! How have I gone from being a📖t the front in ‘20 to not even being in the top 15 and struggling i🉐n ‘21?’”

But another career twist was on the horizon.

A return to Aspar saw the 27-year-old immediately on the Moto2 pace last season, quadrupling his previous best points tally and roꦚmping to six🧸th in the world championship.

“The biggest things have been having a good bike, a great team and believing in what I can do and my abilities,” Dixon said. “Because I've not got any fasꦕter since I entered the World championship, I've just learned to manage myself better. Take it lap by lap, corner by corner. And try not to rush too much.”

“I went from 13th at Valencia with Petronas straight to the first test with Aspar and I was quickest,” Dixon recalled. “Last year was great. I've learned so much…𒈔 I like stepping up to the plate and I genuinely feel this year I can win the championship.”

Darren, Sarah, Frankie and Fabio

Dixon also believes painful p♐ast setbacks on and off the track, including a health scare for w﷽ife Sarah, have ultimately shaped him into a more rounded human being.

“Obviously it's difficult with certain circumstances that happen. That's just life though, and it's made me who I am today. You’d never want those things to happen, but I'm ꦉgrateful for what I've become through those circumstances,” h🌱e said.

“Motorcycle racing is not the ‘be all and end all’, that's something that I have lea🌱rned to rea🤪lise over the last few years.

“You see me joking around in the paddock, I just enjoy it and I want to give the fans something different, somethi﷽ng to laugh about. But when I need to be serious, I’m serious.”

Son of former motorcycle and sidecar racer Darren Dixon, other key people in Jake’s 💛racing life are wife Sarah (also from a racing family), manager Frankie Carchedi (crew chief to 2020 world champion Joan Mir at Suzuki) plus friend and 2021 MotoGP champion Fabio Quartararo

“Everything helps. Dad got me so far and then Frankie came on board and has believed in me since day dot,” Dixon said. “He’s always said I’m going to be in MotoGP one day and he still stands by ꧒that. I can’t thank him enough for what he’s done for me.

“My wife Sarah. She gets i💝t. She understands the job༺. She's my biggest fan and biggest supporter.

“And then obviously Fabio helps me where he can.”

The friendship between Quartararo and Dixon has continued long after their time as SRT ‘team-mates’ (in different classes) came ๊to end, withj the pair frequently seen offering advice and support to each other during race weekends.

“It’s funny because he helps me in c🙈ertain things and there's certain things that people don't see off camera where I can help him,” Dixon said.

“Like in Pꦅhillip Island, when he crashed,” Dixon added, referring to last October’s accident that dealt a major blow to Quartararo’s title hopes. “I was one of the first to go see him.

“I knew it was a time that he needed me and I said to him, ‘look mate, I'm not going to bullshit you. I'm here when you need me. I'm 🦩not here to [stroke] your ego [in the good times]. I’ll be with you when you're down because that's when you need a friend.’

“We work well together. He believes in me and he always says to me, he will push on the side of things with Yamaha to try and hopefully one day get me a ride there. Because he says that what I did in those two [MotoGP] wild-cards was more tha൩n anyone has done jumping on the Yamaha.

“I have such good re😼lationships around me. It's obviously really, really nice to have. I'm learning day by day, taking things as they come and just enjoying life.”

‘Being Moto2 champion would open (MotoGP) doors’

Dixon knows his best chance of securing a MotoGP seat would be as a reigning Moto𝐆2 champion.

“All I am thinking of right now is that my dream and ambition is to be world champion thi🍌s year. And if I do that, it'll open up many doors,” h🍸e said. “So I'll just focus on myself, race by race and if I do that I think the world's my oyster."

In a class as close as Moto2, with all riders using Triumph engines and Dunlop tyres, McLaren asked Dixon where he 𓆉needs to improve for this s🌠eason.

“Obviously, you need to have a good qualifying, al🤡though in Phillip Island I started 14th and came through to the podium!” Dixon said. “The one thing that I seemed to have struggled with and that I need to improve this year is the first 6-7 laps of the race.

“I can't seem to get going in them. I don't feel comfortable at the begi☂nning and I don't seem to have the grip that the others seem to have around me. I don't know why and this is something that we need to work on throughout testing.

“Fℱrom that point onwards, I can be the fastest gꦺuy on track, but I've given myself so much work. To come back through is super difficult because everyone's so close. To just take half a second out of the best in the world is difficult and you have to go over the limit at times.”

Dixon’s Moto2 title challenge could well depend on sealing a debut GP victory sooner rather than later, after several near m꧑isses in the p൲ast.

Huewen asked: “So where's your first win coming?”

“Could be the first race in Portugal. I reꦦally like it. Obviously crashed out of the lead!” Dixon replied. “Listen, I think if I play my cꦯards right, if I work hard for every weekend, there isn't a track that I can't win at…”

Sprint races in MotoGP? ‘I love it!’

While affect📖ing Dixon directly thi🅷s season, the Englishman was quizzed on the introduction of Sprint races into MotoGP this year.

“I love it! I think it’s great for the fans,🍸 great for sponsors🅠, great for everyone. More TV time.

“Ultimately, we all want to go racing. I'm sick to death of riding around for 40 minඣutes in a practice session setting your bike up! I'm ready to go the minute I do my first lap in FP1!

“Especially last year, the bike they gave me was so good I was able to roll out and be quick st𒉰raight away. I was ‘Friday Man’, so for me it would be great. I would love it because it means less sessiꦰons for setting up your bike and more racing.

“And I love racin♛g, as all of you have seen in Malaysia I like a bit of elbow bashing…”

As one of the few current Moto2 riders to have raced a MotoGP machinဣe, does Dixon feel the intermediate class needs traction control?

“The traction control in MotoGP is so good you don't even know you've got tr⛎action control. That's the crazy thing about it. All you feel is you're just🧸 getting less power,” he revealed.

“In World Superbikes, you can almost hear the traction cutting. On the MotoGP bike you can never hear the t💞raction cutting, even on board.

“It's a real tricky thing. Tr✱action control does h𒉰elp, but you also have to have the belief in the system that it’s going to work.

“I think it would help when you step up [to MotoGP]. But then I think Moto2 (without traction control) teaches you good throttle control, to be smooth, to pick the bike up.⭕ Many things that are still relevant to riding a Mo𝔍toGP bike.

“I enjoyed it and I feel better on more horsepower generꦐally than I do on a Moto2 bike.”

'I’m going to Williams F1!'

Some q﷽uick-fire questions from Harry Benjamin saw Dixon describe himself as “the biggest F1 fan. I watch every freℱe practice session.

“Also, when I rode for Petronas, they wanted me to do an eSports race for tওhem on the F1 simulator. So I was going down to Brackley [Mercedes HQ] and pra✃cticing on the sims with [current F1 racer] George Russell and had James Vowles as my engineer. We still text and he helps me with certain things.”

Told that Vowles has just been appointed as team principal of Williams💧 F1, a surprised Dixon replied:

“Has he really? Check m🌄e out, I’m going to Williams!”

Download Episode 74 at the following links...

New podcasts available each week.