Alex Lowes believes Bimota has made progress with the KB998 WorldSBK bike, but his optimism is tempered by a caution born from his understanding of the particular conditions offered up at the Jerez test on 26–27 November.

The KB998’s first season in WorldSBK went generally well, with Lowes himself taking four podiums during the season, including three at Magny-Cours.

Progress is naturally expected in the project’s second season, and Lowes says that, during the tests at the end of this year (both in Jerez, one run post-race in October, the second last week, on 26–27 November), the Italian factory has tried some changes that improved his feeling on the bike.

But the British rider was also keen to be cautious considering the cool conditions that were present in Jerez, which offered better grip than might be expected on a race weekend closer to the summer.

“It’s always pretty difficult to test here [at Jerez] in the winter because the track is quite grippy, the temperature is cool,” Lowes told WorldSBK.com after the second day of the November Jerez test, which he topped as the only rider in the 1:37s.

“You have to be really precise in what you’re testing because everything feels quite good. 

“My best lap was with a qualifying tyre, I did one lap with a qualifying tyre in the middle of the day.

“[We] Changed the chassis of the bike, setup-wise, quite a lot: we’ve got a different swingarm to what we used during the season; different parts from Showa; different balance of the bike. So, we tried just to see how it affected the balance of the bike – it was quite good. 

“Then we started to work on a few other things: some electronics work, corner entry stuff, but it’s difficult to really know, especially with Ducati not here, not everybody here, conditions are cool, track is grippy – so it’s hard to know. 

“But I do believe we’ve made a couple of steps since the last race of the year. 

“We’ll find out, obviously, as we get going on different tracks, but I think we’ve definitely improved our package since the last round of 2025 and that’s all we can do; so, happy with the work done.”

Explaining some of the changes made during the November test, Lowes said that they came from ideas he and the team had come up with during the 2025 season, but never had time to test.

“It’s an evolution, really, of what we’ve learnt during this year – where we’ve gone with the chassis, the base setting,” he said.

“Obviously, on a race weekend you’ve got Friday practice and then you’re racing on Saturday, [so] you don’t really want to go too extreme. 

“So, we had some ideas that we already tried in the test after the race with the balance of the bike – quite extreme. 

“The chassis on the bike was working well, so it’s hard to improve it, but we’ve made quite a big change, and on this track in these conditions I feel a lot more comfortable. 

“Now, like I said, we have to be careful not to not get too excited, we have to try at different tracks, different temperatures and everything else. But with the track time I’ve had, I felt good and confident – the best I’ve felt on the bike.”