Ex-World Superbike champion Tom Sykes has stated that the disappointment of losing the 2014 title in the very last race will spur him on to further success.

Sykes came agonisingly close to retaining his world championship at the final round of 2014 in Qatar. Yet an inspired late-season charge from Sylvain Guintoli and the controversial obeying and disobeying of team orders in both Kawasaki and Aprilia garages saw him lose out by six points – the second time he lost the championship by a single digit figure in three years.

While his Catalan-based KRT outfit revealed the colour scheme of his 2015 Kawasaki ZX-10R at a team launch in Barcelona, Sykes told Crash.net that losing last year's title is still a source of frustration.

“It's difficult. I've lost the championship two years out of three and I put it down to other riders' miscalculations that have really cost us,” he said. “As a rider when it's not your fault it's very difficult to accept because it's almost like your goal is within reaching distance and then somebody takes it away from you.
Now maybe that's just my perception but I'm very bitter with things like this. All I need to do is work and try and get the world championship back. It's something I dedicate my life to and, like I said, when it's taken away from you by somebody else it's impossible to accept.”

Looking ahead to the season opener in Phillip Island on the 22nd February Sykes believes he and his Kawasaki team have reason to be optimistic after two promising preseason tests at Jerez.

“The offseason has gone very good,” he said. “We had a test which was almost a waste of time just because of the weather but apart from that Jerez was good, consistent weather. We had a very productive two-day test and came very close to an acceptable base setting for the Ninja.

[We only need] Small adjustments to the electronics. Small adjustments to the chassis, suspension and general balance. We're coming quite close to let's say to an acceptable package so what we can do now is to start trying to improve all the areas by small percentages at a time.

I am very happy now. We're going to Australia to fine tune our package and try and get the season off to a good start.”