Pata Yamaha's Alex Lowes got his 2018 WorldSBK season underway well on day one at the Jerez tests, going second fastest overall with a late charge. He was also at a high pace on day two and says he knows the R1 will improve over the course of the first few rounds.
Lowes had shown good pace on a race tyre and his sudden jump up the rankings on day one was due to only using a new tyre near the end.
“That was the first time I had been on a new tyre for about three hours,” said Lowes of his Tuesday best lap. “I had done about 30 laps in the same tyres before the last run, still doing decent times. We also had a good test here at Jerez at the end of the year.”
With Andrew Pitt as his crew chief for this year, replacing his old friend and crew chief Ian Prestwood, Lowes explained the different way of working in the past couple of tests. “I had a really good relationship with my old crew chief, and he has been a friend of mine for years. There would be no one better at developing a bike and he is so clever with everything.
"The difference is - not better or worse – but with Andrew he is a bit more focused on getting the most out of each session, and out of me, and being on track at the right time. Constructing everything in the right way to get the most out of it, in a sporting way of looking at it. That is the only difference really. Nothing wrong with Presty but I am enjoying working with Andrew.”
For 2018, bridging the obvious gap up to the leading Kawasaki and Ducati riders is the aim of all in the paddock, and Yamaha were closest to doing that in 2017.
In a technical sense Lowes thinks that he is on the brink of a real improvement, but not quite yet. “There is one thing that has made a big step for me but my perfect setting we cannot quite use yet because stuff is not quite ready. It is coming. But wherever we start I will be able to improve when it is ready. When it is coming I am not quite sure yet. That obviously gives you a lot optimism when you are quite quick anyway.
"We have made some quite big changes to how the bike works. Even the first day, the bike is working different to Qatar. Maybe 20 per cent different, especially on the entry phase. That could be a big difference. Last year all my crashes were on the front, on corner entry. I was pushing the front so hard to do the times. So we need to make a step in that area.”
Said Lowes of the overall 2018 challenge now, “We know for a fact that the bike is going to improve over the first three or four rounds. We have a lot of ideas and stuff coming that is really positive. I think we are already going to start the first rounds in a good position. At the end of last year both of us (Lowes and his team-mate Michael van der Mark) were making quite good steps forward. We need to be challenging for the podium every week. I feel like I am ready to and riding good enough, so we just need to do it now.”
