Sam Lowes has not yet enjoyed Grand Prix glory. The 2013 Supersport World Champion has rather carved out a reputation as a heartthrob. By that, mean that he contests every year Marc Marquez the title of the one who has experienced the most falls over a season. But the parallel with the official Honda ends there. The latter wins, while the Englishman has everything to prove. His failed experience in MotoGP only exacerbated this situation. His return to Moto2 was not a success either. He talks about it. And it stings…
In comments relayed by speedweek, the twin brother of Alex who is more favorably spoken about the family in Superbike, does not beat around the bush: “ I was exploited in the team, it hurt me ».
In 72 races, the Briton has been on the podium eleven times, taking three Grand Prix victories, eight pole positions and notably finishing fourth in the Moto2 championship with Speed-up in 2015. In 2016, he rode for Gresini ( Kalex), then experienced the fiasco in 2017 with the Aprilia in MotoGP. He will return to Gresini in 2019 for a season in Moto2. But in the meantime, there was 2018 and his service at Swiss Innovativ Investors from Fred Corminboeuf.
A return to Fausto which delights him: “ I am proud to be back at Gresini. I have a great team behind me,” Lowes said. But when he thinks about 2018, the tone changes dramatically. The 28-year-old pilot from Lincolnshire is said to still be waiting for his salary. “They took advantage of my good character ", he says.
The 2013 Supersport World Champion remembers: “ When we returned to Europe from the overseas races in spring 2018, I heard rumors. After the tests in Aragón, when I used a new chassis and other new parts, I was fast. But we never got the new parts. KTM barely cared about our contribution because we were riding different and old equipment compared to the official Ajo team. The team said it was just a small difference, but it had an impact on performance ».
He specifies : " there was some sort of misunderstanding in the middle of the year when we talked about money and how the team would work. The team coordinator asked, since when has money been linked to a driver's performance. I wanted to tell him that every damn minute has an impact. Ultimately, a lot of things influenced me. And not getting paid at all definitely influenced me ».
Lowes describes his state of mind very clearly: “ knowing that you are driving on old equipment and that you are not adding any new spare parts, that you have not been paid and that my mechanics are not paid, disturbed me a lot. You start to question everything ».
The twin brother of the Yamaha SBK rider, Alex Lowes, states: “ I'm just a human being and I've had a good year off the track with the birth of my daughter. I treated everyone on the team well, but they didn't respect me at all. They took advantage of my nature and my cheerful character, it hurts. I started to question myself. But when I jumped at the Gresini opportunity at the end of the season, I realized that with all my guesses, I had been 110% right ».
We will recall that Lowes had in 2018 Iker Lecuona as a teammate. Who, despite all these internal difficulties and his young age, did much better than him... With, in particular, a good second place at the end of the last Grand Prix in Valencia.
