You’d think having a twin brother in the Moto GP paddock might bother some. Not Alex Lowes.

WORDS: FAGAN PI CS: KEL EDGE

RACE FEATURE

No one can question Alex’s effort and determination.

It’s pissing down with rain at Silverstone. It’s okay though, as I’m sitting in one of the Wing’s many glitzy offices with Alex Lowes. He’s his usual vibrant, cheeky self. No surprise really; fresh from a Suzuka 8-Hour victory and clinching another year’s contract with Pata Yamaha in World SBK, wouldn’t you be?

Having grown up with the Lowes twins in the British Superbike paddock, I, as well as many, have enjoyed seeing the boys’ progression though the racing ranks and onto the world stage. As his brother struggled on an uncompetitive Aprilia in MotoGP before being unceremoniously dumped, Alex is making strides in his second season with the factory Pata Yamaha team.

“The season’s been okay I’d say. We’ve been a lot more consistent than last year and managed a few podiums. We’re 5th in the championship, the next behind the Ducatis and Kawasakis which is the good thing. My job is to try and close that gap. There have been a couple of mistakes, we’ve been working hard as a team but it’s not easy at the minute. We need to try and find some good steps forward.” And why isn’t it easy? “It’s not easy because, well, you’ve got good riders on good bikes in front. We’re lacking a little something to help us get off the corners compared to them [the Ducatis and Kawasakis]. If you lose that little bit on corner exit, you try and gain on the brakes, so then you seem to be complaining about braking and corner entry and the front. It’s not necessarily the power of the bike, just the way we get the power down from apex to the outside kerb – just that 50 metres – so that’s the area we’re trying to improve more than anything.”

Which is surprising (and ironic) given the road-going R1M’s corner exit ability, and its excellent slide control technology – something that’s not utilised on Alex’s Pata Yamaha superbike.

“On the stock R1M, it’s amazing. Something like that would help us at the minute. We are making steps forward with the TC and getting the power down but some tracks we seem to struggle. These tracks where you have to pick the bike up with a shallow exit, we can’t ride the bike out the corners. Chicanes and sharp exits, and Laguna Seca or Imola where there are such slow corners, we genuinely struggled for speed. But other tracks, we’ve been really strong and quite competitive. You make some progress then go to other circuits and you’re not happy. It’s a never-ending game.”

Despite glimpses of promise and a few podiums (the only rider to have mounted the podium other than a factory Ducati or Kawasaki rider), anyone with a bumhole can see that Alex is better than the bike. Is that frustrating?