Sam Lowes says he has “areas to improve” ahead of the opening WorldSBK round of the 2026 season, but thinks he’s “in the mix” regardless.

Lowes was 0.6 seconds off the fastest time of Nicolo Bulega on the final day of the Phillip Island WorldSBK test, but was second nonetheless after making progress in the afternoon.

The British rider also expects the the gap to Bulega to close at the weekend when the soft tyre that was available at the test will not be in the allocation.

“I had a really good day,” Lowes told WorldSBK.com after day two in Phillip Island.

“We managed to improve this afternoon quite a step with the bike. I did a longer run this morning, more for me than the team, really, just to understand my feeling  and to get some rhythm in after not many laps. 

“But we did make a step this afternoon [Tuesday], I did a lot of good laps, I managed to do my best lap time on the second run of the tyre which, around Phillip Island, is quite a good thing. 

“I feel competitive, I think with the harder tyre I’ll be a little bit closer than with the softer one, so the softer one we don’t have on the race weekend. 

“So, let’s see, but it’s been a good job by the team, they’ve improved the bike a lot session-by-session. I’ve got some areas I can improve but we’re in the mix.”

Lowes added that the step he made in the afternoon pointed out the direction he wants to follow on Friday of the race weekend.

“We made a good step this afternoon with the bike,” he said. “We’re still figuring out this new bike so we made some– not big changes, but good changes, so more in this direction; a little bit of bike balance, a little bit of wheelbase that seems to be working so we want to try and go another step in that direction to see if we can improve a little bit the grip. 

“[We want to work] a little bit [on] the front tyre, I’m not too sure what front tyre to use for the 22 laps, so we’ll definitely be trying that in FP2 just to back-to-back.”

Bulega the favourite

Despite Lowes’ improvement on Tuesday afternoon, he was still 0.6 seconds behind Nicolo Bulega. This difference is something Lowes thinks will be smaller in the race weekend, but the Italian is still the clear favourite for victory in Australia, he thinks.

“Obviously, Bulega’s riding very good,” Lowes said.

“He’s got a really good feeling with this track; last year he won all three races, from the very first run of this test he’s been fast. 

“But I think the gap is a bit less with the harder tyre. 

“I think I can improve, I think he’s still the favourite by a step anyway, but maybe at the weekend it will not be as big as it looks. 

“So, let’s take a couple of days to improve some things. 

“There are a few other guys that are going good, so very lucky to have a Ducati in Phillip Island that works good. But there’s some other guys going good also.”

About Bulega, Lowes added: “I think it suits his style a lot, this track. He’s coming from disappointment at the end of last year, but from a very confident season, won all three races here last year. 

“He put some tyres in in the last two runs to make that step, before the gap was a bit closer. Let’s see. He’s the favourite, he has a step. If he keeps doing it like that he can win all the races, but the season is long, anything can happen, and it’s our job – the other guys – to catch up and improve. 

“I’m in a massively better place than I was last year, and I think we can get even closer at other circuits.”