Sam Lowes believes he deserved to get a second season in MotoGP but feels he’d have benefitted more from making his debut a year earlier or a year later than he did.

Lowes stepped up  the premier class from Moto2 with Aprilia Gresini Racing in 2017 on a two-year deal but would only get a single season on the RS-GP before being released from his contract early after breaking into the points on only two occasions.

Returning to Moto2 the following season, where he would remain until the end of the 2023 campaign, Lowes reveals he had a deal in place to join MotoGP with Aprilia in 2016 but the decision was taken to defer the move.

Going on to enjoy a strong 2016 Moto2 season with Gresini Racing, Lowes feels he should have stayed another year in Moto2 to target the title with Marc VDS Racing in preparation for a 2018 MotoGP switch instead.

“I think I could have done a lot better in that situation,” Lowes told Crash.net.

“When I won World Supersport in 2013, I was not really even a professional rider [at that stage]. And by 2017, I was in MotoGP. I was fast enough. But it's about more than that in MotoGP.

“We always joke that I’m old but my racing age is young. I'd done nothing compared to a lot of them at that point. So it was maybe the wrong call, but it’s so easy to say that after.

“I don't regret it. It was a strange one, because I actually signed for Aprilia to go in 2016. And then we changed it, and that was all a bit weird. I did a year with Gresini in Moto2 instead, which was mega.

“At that point I had the option to get out [of the 2017 MotoGP deal] and I probably should have stayed longer in Moto2 and tried to win the title, and maybe gone to Marc VDS at that point.

“But I also could have not done very well and then never got the chance to go to MotoGP! I'm happy that I did. I can sleep well with that.”

Reflecting on the decision to split with Aprilia early, though Lowes feels he deserved a second year as planned, he was content with the way his grand prix career panned out.

“I would have liked a second year on the Aprilia because, as bad as it was, it was a time when they weren’t doing amazing anyway. Scott [Redding] jumped on it [the next year] and arguably didn't do really any better than me.

“So just to keep me for a second year, like for everyone, you’re going to make a step aren’t you? And sometimes I wasn't that far.

“So I'd like to have seen a second year, because, like I said, I’ve raced a lot of the guys there now. I don’t think I’m a Marc, Pecco or Valentino but on a good bike I could have done alright.

“But then that’s what everyone in the paddock would say!”

Lowes will join his brother Alex Lowes racing in the WorldSBK Championship next season on the Marc VDS Racing Ducati.