Superbike: Sam Lowes is also working for Bulega—Ducati wants to keep winning

The British rider in action for two days of testing in France, venue of the next SBK round: positive final balance.

Last week at Magny-Cours, it wasn’t only the factory BMW and Honda teams working there. Representing Ducati was the independent Elf Marc VDS squad with Sam Lowes, a rider currently fifth in the Superbike standings, 5 points behind the Bimota ridden by his twin brother Alex. It was up to him to turn laps and collect valuable data ahead of the French round, which will take place the weekend of September 4–6 after the long summer break (the last race was held on July 12 at Donington Park).

On Thursday the 13th and Friday the 14th of August at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours it was very hot (over 30°C in the air and over 60°C on the asphalt), a condition it’s always useful to work in. Sam Lowes used both race tires and qualifying tires (SCQ), and also tested new fork components. He carried out long runs especially on the second day. His work was valuable ahead of the fourth-to-last round of the 2026 Superbike calendar. At Ducati, data sharing is planned among all teams, so the factory Aruba team and the other independents will also be able to benefit from what Elf Marc VDS gathered in the French test. Everyone will have a baseline from which to make adjustments to build the best possible setup during the free practice sessions.

Lowes expressed satisfaction with the work done over the two days at Magny-Cours: “It was a really positive test. It didn’t feel like Magny-Cours, it was so hot! It was a great test for us, because we know these are conditions where I struggle a bit. We tried different things, we tried the race tire, we tried the SCQ tire on the morning of the second day, and we set some good lap times. I think it was a productive test and I hope we can use it to our advantage in a few weeks. Everyone is enjoying the break, so it was nice to be able to work on some aspects. We tried some fork components that turned out to be positive. It was very hot, I did some long runs on the second day and everything went well.”

The British rider had nothing negative to report, although testing with only five other colleagues on track is a different story compared to a race weekend when everyone is lapping. The pressure is different, too. In any case, he and the Marc VDS team tried their best to work effectively and return home with a good amount of information to exploit at the September 4–6 round, when everyone will once again be chasing Nicolò Bulega, the dominant force of the 2026 Superbike World Championship with the Aruba Ducati Panigale V4 R. He has won 23 of the 24 races held, with the other going to teammate Iker Lecuona.

As for the Elf Marc VDS team, future plans have not yet been made official. Following the death of owner Marc Van Der Straten, it remains to be seen what will happen to the teams currently competing in the Moto2 World Championship, WorldSBK, and EWC. Even before the Belgian magnate passed away, there were rumors about possibly shutting down Moto2 operations to focus on Superbike and Endurance.

For SBK, the possibility had also emerged of doubling up the Ducati Panigale V4s in the garage. Sam Lowes has a contract expiring in 2027, so his stay was never in doubt. For the other seat, Aron Canet was mentioned, a rider with the Elf Marc VDS team in Moto2 who had signed a multi-year contract and could be moved to the production-derived championship. Updates are expected in the coming weeks.