Sam Lowes: Acosta, Arbolino deserve MotoGP | ‘I can’t do that’ like Rins - Exclusive
Sam Lowes is sure that Marc VDS Moto2 team-mate Tony Arbolino will join Pedro Acosta in MotoGP, sooner or later.
Arbolino entered the summer break with an eight-point title lead over Acosta, the pair winning six of the eight races so far this year.
But while Acosta’s MotoGP option has been taken up by KTM, albeit with the exact seat TBC, Arbolino remains locked in negotiations with teams such as Gresini to try and secure a premier-class place.
Lowes, who along with countryman Jake Dixon are the only other Moto2 race winners this season, told Crash.net:
“I’ve heard the rumours… Pedro's going to MotoGP. I don't know if Tony will go next year or the year after. But when he has the right chance he'll go because he deserves to.”
Lowes made his own Moto2 to MotoGP move with a then-uncompetitive Aprilia in 2017. It proved a frustrating experience and he returned to Moto2 after a single season.
But the Englishman has no regrets and warned young riders not to hesitate over a MotoGP offer, since Moto2 form can quickly disappear and with it any chance of a MotoGP seat.
“If I did it all over again, I would still go to MotoGP when I did,” Lowes said. “It went to shit, but I'm partly to blame and I would be a different person in the situation now.
“I feel like if I could have got a second year by managing it differently, myself and other people, it would have been a lot different. I'd still be there in my opinion. But it doesn’t matter now.”
The former World Supersport champion and ten-time Moto2 winner added: “If you’re in this paddock now, then you need to be in MotoGP.
“And with Moto2, you’ve got to strike while the iron is hot. When you’ve got a run of form you’ve got to go to MotoGP.
“Because you never know what happens if you stay. It's f**king tight. There's nowhere to hide. Because who wins every week? Kalex. Suspension? Ohlins. Tyres? Dunlop.
“Maybe a bike setting will make the difference between first or second and third. But not finishing first and twelfth. Because the biggest place in Moto2 to improve is the mirror.
“Especially with the Triumph engine, because you can ride it in a few different ways. If you didn't ride the Honda engine in a certain way, you were not winning. So that’s really good now.
“For example, me and Pedro ride with certain lines. Tony rides a completely different way - and Tony's leading World championship.
“Now anyone that gets a half competitive package in MotoGP has had years in Moto2 of just looking at themselves and working on themselves. And they go fast. Because they get the most out of it.
“Moto2 is a good class for that.”
Lowes on Alex Rins: 'Some of the things you do, I can't’
Lowes may only have spent a single season in the premier class but he’s raced against every MotoGP rider that graduated through Moto2 since 2014. In other words, almost the entire MotoGP grid.
Who stands out from their Moto2 battles?
“I raced with Rins in Austin for every lap of the 2016 race (pictured). We finished first and second, with third place seven seconds behind,” Lowes recalled.
“I followed him and I was sitting there thinking, ‘f**king hell, some of the things you do, I can't do that’.
“So he was one of the people that’s impressed me. And then, look at him in Austin this year.”
Rins, a five-time MotoGP winner for Suzuki who then broke Honda’s win drought at COTA this year, is currently being linked with a Monster Yamaha seat.
“It’s not always panned out in terms of what they’ve done so far in MotoGP, but for example, Raul Fernandez in 2021 at Aragon is another that stands out,” Lowes continued.
“I was leading, he passed me and then I followed him for half of the race before I crashed, but some of the stuff he did was impressive.
“There are a few people over the years that have done something slightly different. Bastianini is another.
“The rest of them are very very good and if you put them on the best bike in MotoGP, I would say they could all win.
“But given the right chance with good people, Tony would definitely do well in MotoGP.”
In terms of his own future, at 32, Lowes is now weighing up a fresh start in World Superbike for 2024.
“There's no chance of me going to MotoGP again now. I’m not even thinking about it,” he said.
“I just think for the future I want to ride as much as I can. So if I have the chance to go [to WorldSBK] in a nice situation, I'm definitely going to think about it.
“Then again, if Tony and Pedro go to MotoGP and I stay [in Moto2], I’m not in a bad position!” Lowes grinned.
