Video: Marc VDS unveil Elf livery, Lowes 'we have to stay on our toes'

Sam Lowes and Marc VDS team-mate Augusto Fernandez have unveiled their revised race livery for the 2021 Moto2 World Championship (see video below).

Elf has taken over from Estrella Galicia as title sponsor, resulting in a new twist to the usual VDS colours, as the team sets its sights on claiming a fourth Moto2 riders' title to join previous champions Tito Rabat (2014), Franco Morbidelli (2017) and Alex Marquez (2019).

Sam Lowes finished tied on points with Luca Marini for second place in last year's world championship, just nine adrift of Enea Bastianini.

With Bastianini, Marini and fifth in standings Jorge Martin all moving up to MotoGP this season, Lowes is among the pre-season favourites.

The Englishman, 30, also took three victories last season, making it his most successful year on paper in grand prix racing.

"Last year I had a great season. Maybe it was the best of my career," Lowes said. "This year I hope to take advantage of everything we learned, fine tune some details and compete again with the fastest riders.

“I feel the best I’ve done in my whole career. I’ve had some good seasons in the past in Moto2, but I feel like I’ve improved my weak points and understood where I can still improve.

“The main thing [I learned last year] was to be smarter in certain moments and not push when I didn’t need to. I can make a step on managing the weekend better and I’m always looking at ways to improve my riding.

"The World Championship will be tight because there are many riders who are at a high level, but I'm going to give everything to fight to win the Moto2 World Championship."

While Moto2 chassis design is frozen for 2021, Lowes will also continue with an unchanged technical crew this year. Gilles Bigot returns as crew chief, supported by telemetry engineer Julien Robert, plus mechanics Olivier Boutron and Anthony Couturier.

Although many of his main opponents from last season have left the class for MotoGP, Lowes knows there are plenty of rising stars set to take their place.

“There are some guys coming up from Moto3 who are going to be really fast and some of the rookies from 2020 that are going to be better in their second year. In Moto2 there are so many people that can be fast," he said.

"Anyone of 10 riders, if they can get on a good run of results, can fight for the World Championship. We have to stay on our toes and keep improving but I am going to be there fighting.”

Also starting his second year at Marc VDS will be Fernandez who, after three victories for Pons in 2019, was left without a podium last season.

"My main goal this year is to have fun on the bike again," said the Spaniard, who was 13th in the world championship. "I'm convinced that this is the best way to get results and to be able to fight again at the front of the race on a regular basis.

"I have prepared well during the winter and I am very happy with the work we are doing with the team and my new crew chief to achieve this goal.

"I have a good feeling and even though it was hard, I learned a lot of things last year that I will try and improve in 2021.

"The first tests have gone well, so I'm really looking forward to Qatar and seeing how it will be when we start racing again. I think it will be a good year and I will really enjoy it.”

"I can't wait to start our twelfth season in the Moto2 World Championship. Although it will be a year marked again by the pandemic, we hope it will be less disruptive than 2020 and we can enjoy our great passion like always," said team boss Marc van der Straten.

"I am very proud to have Sam Lowes and Augusto Fernandez representing our colours for the second consecutive season and to have Elf as an important partner. I am convinced that our two riders and the whole team will work hard and give everything on track to give us great moments and good results."