Sam Lowes: “I would like to go to World Superbike in future”- Exclusive

With two poles and a win in the last two rounds, Lowes is showing the speed needed to battle the likes of Pedro Acosta and his Marc VDS team-mate Tony Arbolino for this year’s Moto2 crown.

But even if Lowes were to bridge the sizeable 55-point gap to Arbolino and clinch the Moto2 crown, traditionally a springboard into the premier class, the Englishman believes all places on the 2024 MotoGP grid would already have been filled.

The next few weeks are crucial for rider contracts and, speaking to Crash.net on Thursday at Mugello, Lowes indicated he needs to decide between staying with Marc VDS in Moto2, where he has taken seven of his ten GP wins, or joining brother Alex for a fresh challenge in World Superbike.

Lowes, who spent a difficult 2018 with Aprilia in MotoGP before returning to Moto2, was also asked about rumours he could combine both possibilities, by switching to WorldSBK with Marc VDS.

Either way, Lowes made clear that WorldSBK is “massively on my radar”…

Crash.net:

Two poles and a win in the last two rounds, does it feel like Sam Lowes is back to his best?

Sam Lowes:

I think that some parts of my riding are better now than ever. Jerez for example, the way I rode to win there, leading every lap. It’s hard to win like that, especially around a track that we’ve all ridden at. So I was really happy with it.

Le Mans [falling on the opening lap] was a small mistake, with a big punishment. I lost the front on the right side which was a strange one. Maybe I didn’t ride around behind enough people in practice and then it just pulled me in a bit in the race, behind Tony and Lopez.

So that was a bit frustrating. But the team did an amazing job to try and get me back out for the restart.

I felt good all year. America and Argentina were difficult weekends with the weather and the new schedule in Moto2 means if you don’t get a good feeling straight away, it’s easy to be a little bit out of it.

Crash.net

Is it all about regaining fitness?

Sam Lowes:

In 2121, I wasn’t really a match for the two KTMs, Raul and Remy, but it was still a solid year. Third in the championship, I won some races and was quite happy.

Last year I did no winter testing with my wrist, when I had tendonitis. The first few races were OK and then I just got in a bit of a bad run. I got taken out in America by Chantra, got taken out here by Tony, we all crashed in Portugal with the rain. I just got a bad run going and then I did my shoulder in at Silverstone.

It was really bad. A lot worse than I thought, even until December, January this year I was struggling. I had three months last year where I didn’t sleep well. I had loads of pain, no power, no movement. I was trying to ride and was slow obviously. I couldn’t even really get tucked in.

We didn’t do most of the last nine races and then at the start of this year, I was quite fast in testing, but a bit rusty at the races.

Now I just feel back on it, I feel back to normal. I’m enjoying it, focused. It’s all…