Alex Lowes has expressed only one frustration from his inaugural season with Bimota in the 2025 WorldSBK season.
The Lincolnshire-born rider was heavily involved in Kawasaki’s project up to their departure. After Kawasaki scaled back to a single rider on a different team, the Japanese manufacturer retained its engine while adopting Bimota’s chassis.
As expected with any major overhaul, Lowes had his ups and downs throughout the season. However, he finished sixth in the WorldSBK championship and secured all of Bimota’s four podiums.
He went into detail about why the second round in Portugal didn’t meet expectations, explaining: “Portimao was a shame because I had the yellow flag in qualifying, so I went from fourth to last on the grid, and I didn’t handle that well,” he shared.
“Phillip Island was a bit of a disappointment after last year, so then second round at Portimao I felt quite good on the bike, and I was trying to, let’s say, prove the project, almost, looking back then.
“So, rather than just accept that the weekend was going to be tough after qualifying, I’ve thought about having a good weekend from the back of the grid.
“So, the first race I got up to eighth, crashed; then the Superpole Race, hard to come through in 10 laps; and then the last race, crashing again.
“So, those two rounds, if I take those out, it was a good year. But Portimao was not good.”
Although he did not earn a single point at the Algarve, he recovered with a top-six finish in Assen, establishing a developing trend for the remainder of the season.
He achieved his best result of the season with a second-place finish, delivering a podium for Bimota at its home race in Misano, and went on to finish every race except two Sprint events inside the top six.
“From Hungary, the whole second part of the year was good, especially long races: top-six every race. I think for the first year on the bike it was a solid effort,” he told Crash.net.
“I’d say I was riding well in the second half of [2025],” he said.
“You just have to ride the bike a little bit– not smoother, that’s not the right word, but softer in certain ways you force the bike. I understand it a lot more now.”
He added that the differences between the KB998 and the 2024 Ninja ZX-10RR required him to adapt his riding to match the Italian bike’s strengths.
“Four or five years on the Kawasaki, you get into habits of the Kawasaki without even realising, sort of subconscious,” he added.
“So, that took some time to change, but now I’m really enjoying the bike, it’s a pleasure to ride, we just need to keep working for some more performance.”
READ MORE – Alex Lowes reveals what he and Bimota focused on at the Jerez WorldSBK test
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