Here it is then: just an everyday story of racing folk. Rider distinguishes himself in smaller classes. Gets job in premier class with factory team. Starts winning races in his first season. Becomes a hero. Is called Marc Marquez.
Here’s another one. Rider distinguishes himself, etc. But his MotoGP results aren’t so good. Nor, to be fair, is the status of the team that hired him. Then halfway through the year they threaten to renege on their promises, and scrap his contract, which still has a year and a half to run.
He is called Sam Lowes, and the story of his move from top Moto2 maniac to bruised and battered also-ran on a factory Aprilia doesn’t make a happy read. Trouble is, it’s very hard not to like the cheerful and spirited Englishman, and the same goes for the underdog Aprilia team, which has a real human face. And the bottom line is that both bike and rider have had a torrid time. Jointly and severally, their results have been pretty dire.
Lowes was a hard charger in Moto2, and after his first win in 2015 was signed up for the Italian Gresini team in 2016, where for a while he ran Zarco close for the title. In the end inconsistency cost him; only two wins among six podiums, and too many no-scores. Mostly caused by lone crashes. His least distinguished statistic of 2016 was that he had the most recorded falls in all three classes. Lowes ended up on 30; even the headlong Axel Pons had only 21, the next most in Moto2. Overall, Argentine Moto3 rider Gabriel Rodrigo was second on 27; MotoGP’s Cal Crutchlow had 26.
The contract not only took the identical twin of SBK Yamaha factory rider Alex away from the precarious Speed Up Moto2 chassis and onto the class-leading Kalex, but had him testing Aprilia’s new MotoGP bike, and down to ride it for the next two years. This was at the expense of either Stefan Bradl or Alvaro Bautista, both dropped by Aprilia at the end of 2016.
So the new season begins at Qatar, where Sam becomes the first premier-class rider to fall off. This is an aspect of his search for speed that just won’t go away. He’s not quite the crashiest rider in the top class: that’s happy tumbler Marquez, with 13 by the end of the Assen weekend. But Sam is just two behind.
Not so unexpectedly, Lowes is not very close to his new and vastly more experienced teammate Aleix Espargaro. The Spaniard is clearly faster and spends time close to the sharp end in races. He’s claimed three top-10 finishes, including sixth at Qatar. Sam has scored points just once, 14th in France.
But, even discounting Aleix’s seven years of MotoGP experience, the comparison is not entirely fair. Sam’s role is, to a large extent, that of a tester. For example, he keeps on using the ducted-downforce fairing to gather data. Aleix, meanwhile, gets the go-faster bits, the engine and chassis upgrades.
A role Lowes was happy with, since he is also learning the ropes in the top class.
Until Aprilia team boss Romano Albesiano started to issue nebulous but definite threats around about the time of the Catalunyan GP, two weeks before Assen.
Various sources quoted the man who inherited a so-far less than successful MotoGP project from Gigi Dall’Igna when he departed for Ducati. For example, Italian website GPOne. “We hope,” ran the quote, “that he [Sam] can quickly show signs of improvement. But at the same time, we cannot allow ourselves to stand still, because we need to think about the next championship.”
Then came Albesiano’s killer line. “This means we will talk to other riders.” That in turn meant that he already was talking to other riders. Like Iannone, Petrucci, Bautista, though conversations with Cal Crutchlow came to naught, when he signed to stay with Honda.
Lowes therefore went to Assen under a cloud. He was riding for his job. Happily for him, qualifying was also under a cloud, giving him a chance to show his mettle on a soaking track. He was second-fastest in Q1, earning for the first time the right to go through to Q2. Espargaro was fifth in that session, and out of the picture.
Now Sam had a first chance to shine, with the big guys, and still on a wet track.
But he was on an Aprilia, and it was time for the bike to show that the rider was not necessarily the weakest link—with a massive full-throttle smoky blow-up, just in front of Rossi.
Given that Espargaro has already lost two engines, and another that blew up at Barcelona tests, it looks like the “must try harder” tag doesn’t only apply to the rider. CN
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