While many might expect Lowes’ first Moto2 win in over a year – and tenth ofꦰ his career - to sway him towards staying, the Englishman saw it as ꦕproof he is still fast enough to take on the Superbike challenge.

Speaking for the fi꧙rst time since Marc VDS officially announced it will enter WorldSBK with Lowes on Ducati machin🍨ery in 2024, the 32-year-old explained:

“It sounds so strange to say it, but literally on my in-lap after winning in Jerez and going to the podium, I kind of 🎃made a decision I wanted to go to Supeꦇrbike.

“Because of how I felt and everything, it was like ‘this is amazing, but I've still got a lot to give. I still feel fast. I st༺ill feel competitive. I can still do 🐭a race like that’.

"So to go to a new category riding like that, I can do s♏omething nice.

“If I wait a bit longer, maybe my motivation goes down, speed goes down. Ju𝄹st to go there [to WorldSBK] and ride around, I would prefer to not go.

"So it's a strange thing to say,ꩵ given that I’d just won a grand prix,🙈 but at that point, I knew that Superbike was what I wanted to do.”

• Kenny Roberts Jr: “We were the computer back in the day!”
• Pol makes MotoGP return ꩲat Goodwood: "Just to open the throttle… It's insane!”
• Official: Sam Lowes to World Sup🐓erbike witꦦh Marc VDS

A major push factor was the change in the MotoGP weekend schedule, which has seen the addition of a Sprint race for the premier class but less track time for Moto2 a๊nd Moto3.

“The main reason is that I've been a long time in Moto2, I felt some weekends I was not getting the most out of myself because of the [reduced] track time and the way the sch﷽edule is,” added the 2013 World Supersport champion, who will have spent ten years in grand prix, nine in Moto2 and one in💃 MotoGP.

“It’d be different i♔f it was five years ago, but now I'm getting a bit older! I just felt like I wanted to travel less and ride more. Not travel more and ride less.

“It was important for me to change now. If I would have stayed in Moto2 I felt like I'd do one or two more years and then sort of stopped my career there. Whereas i💖f I come to Superbike now, knuckle down and achieve🌠 good things, I feel like I can get a few more years and am very motivated to do so.”

Lowes: Staying with Marc VDS “a no brainer”, one-rider team in 2024

Having made the decision to go to WorldSBK, a championship🍸 he is long familiar with from his own Supersport efforts and supporting twin brother Alex since 2014, Sam initially spoke to existing teams.

But when Marc van der Straten, whose squad ha𓂃s run Lowes in Moto2 since 2020 and where wife Marina is team director, heard of the discussions VDS expressed interest in forming a Superbike team with him.

Talks with Ducati soon accelerated and, for Lowes, the chance to switch to WorldSBK but still r꧅emain with Marc VDS was “a no-brainer”.

“I was looking at Superbike. I had a coup﷽le of options to go there in other private teams, potentially also in one of the factory teams,” Lowes sai🌌d.

“So I was talking to them and that's when it got spoken about [within Mar🐻c VDS] and just before Le Mans they mentioned they would also be interested in going and what do I think?

“It was a funny time because I had the offer to stay [with Marc VDS] in Moto2 and also to go [with them 🦹to WorldSBK]! It was nice. It just sort of came about and then evolv𝔉ed over the next weeks and months.

“I think it's all down to Mark [van der Straten]. Mark has a big passion for racing. I also think the Ducati people were very good with him and pushed the project actually ea𓆏rly on in Le Mans, so it♏ made it even more that they wanted to do it.

“I had to decide a couple of weeks ago whether I go another direction in Superbike, or with the [Marc VDS] team. Honestly, for me, it’s aꦉ no-brainer. In the end, it's good to be on a factory bike, but when you're in a team like Marc🃏 VDS - OK it's not factory, but they provide absolutely everything that you could need.

“[Marc VDS] is like a factory team🐻 in my opinion and it's perfect for me to go with these people.

"I have a great relationship obviously with certain people in the teamꦓ, but also wit🌠h Mark and for me, it was not much of a decision in the end. It was the right thing to do.”

For the first year of the project at least, Lowes will be the team's only rider while the crew will largely be picked from existing Superbikꦗe teams tཧo avoid weakening the multi-title winning Marc VDS Moto2 project.

“It's definitely just one rider [for 2024],” Lowes said. “It's quite a big thing to set up a new team in a new category, especially when we finish in [Moto2] at the end of November and th𒈔en the end of February is usually the first race for Superbikes. So it💮's quite a small turnaround in that sense.

“Obviously the head of the [WorldSBK] team will be the same in effect, with Patrick [Kramer] running the technical side and Marina running everything e🐈lse. But the mechanics, the people working on the bike, the engineers and the crew will be from Superbike because obviously Mark and the whole team is very committed to the Moto2 project for next year and the future.

“So [WorldSBK] will be a new ventܫure with some support, some people from Ducati.

“I think everyone can see how good that [Marc VDS Moto2 team] is and I personally know how good that team is. So I think it’s not right to mix that up to do the [WorldSBK] project. Also, they're quite different, the bikes, the categories. So at the minute, the plan is Moto2 will stay very simiওlar to now personnel-wise although obviously I'm leaving and I don't know what Tony [Arbolino] will do yet.

“I think the team and Mark should be prꦓoud to be in Moto2 - and then also in Superbike, where on each race weekend you're in the top class. I think that's also something to look at for Mark.”

• Brad Binder:꧟ Blessing to have a fast team-mate - and Jack Miller’s Ducati kn🍎owhow
• 2023 Goodwood Festival of Sꦐpeed: Full MotoGP rider a🅠nd Legends line-up

"I've raced a lot of WorldSBK guys in Moto2"

In terms of adapting his riding style to the bigger Superbike and Pirelli🧜 rubber, Lowes said:

“I ride a lot in the winter with the R1. Obviously on Dunlops because Moto2 is Dunlops so it’d be silly to use a differen🍨t tyre.

"But I ride tho🧔se [Superbikes] a little bit better. My riding sty🍃le in Moto2 is more stop-start so that should be a good point [in WorldSBK].

“Obvio𒉰usly everything's a lot less stiff, moves a lot more, the tyres the chassis, everything [in WorldSBK]. But also you have the electronics which apart from my year in Aprilia [MotoGP] we don't have in Moto2 so there'll be some interesting new things.

“Of course, you have to adapt 🌜and understand. There'll be some things that I don't know that are going to be differe𝓀nt. But I feel good.

“You have the top t🥀hree guys [in WorldSBK] really at another level, I think everyone would say. And then the rest of the guys, I've raced a lot of them in Moto2 and been competitive against them.

“As long as I’ve been in grand prix, Alex has been in Superbikes, so I’mꦿ also lucky that I’ve followed Superbikes very closely for the last ten years and know certain things from talking to Alex a lot each weekend, about the problems they face in different areas.

“So I think it’s a good time to go and 🦩🎐start learning."

The hectic n🎐ature of the remaining Moto2 season means Lowes doesn’t 🀅expect to debut on a WorldSBK spec Ducati Panigale, currently dominating with reigning champion Alvaro Bautista, until after November’s Valencia finale.

“There’s only a couple of weeಌks now until Silverstone, and then we've got 12 rounds left of a big schedule, so I'♍m looking forward to that and not really thinking about the new project just yet, especially riding-wise," Lowes said.

“Of course, I'm🥃 looking forward to [WorldSBK] and can't൩ wait, but the first thing is to get some nice results and add to my achievements in Moto2.

"Then as soon as Valencia finishes, I'll be jumping on some Pirellis. I don'🎉t know the testing schedule yet but I'll definitely ride a Ducati this year, after I finish with the Moto2."

Lowes is currently eighth in th𒆙e Moto2 standings, with one victory and two pole position🥀s.