Nicky Hayden not giving up on GP11.1

Nicky Hayden is likely to switch back to Ducati’s radically revamped GP11.1 machine in the near future, despite opting to stick with the older GP11 version in last weekend’s US Grand Prix.

The Kentucky rider briefly rode the new GP11.1 during practice for his home race at Laguna Seca last weekend.

But he raced the GP11 he’d ridden in the opening nine races in California, the 2006 world champion finishing in a lowly seventh after a race long battle with team-mate Valentino Rossi, who was on the GP11.1.

Hayden liked certain aspects of the new GP11.1, including the new seamless shift gearbox, but he said it was too much of a risk racing a bike he had little experience of in his crucial home race.

But he hasn’t ruled out reverting back to the GP11.1 in the future and he said: “I probably will later in the year. At Laguna, a track I love, I didn’t want to be testing.

“Maybe after Brno, when we can stay, test all day, I can learn more about it and go on from there. If that’s the future we should at some stage start looking at it. I think that’s one reason Valentino definitely wants to stay on it, he knows that’s the future.”

The new GP11.1 features a revised swingarm, rear suspension system and chassis compared to the GP11.

But the difference is minimal, with Rossi and Hayden split by less than a second in the last two races at Sachsenring and Laguna Seca despite being on completely different machinery.

Ducati is believed to be working on an even more radical technical change with Loris Capirossi telling MCN in Germany recently that requests have been made to switch to an aluminium chassis.

But Hayden said: “We’re missing something. It’s not just one thing right now like the frame and a little bit better turning. The others did a big step, but I’m not sure what they’re working on at Ducati.

“I know they’re working. Everybody’s working hard. Hard work in the long run pays off, but at the moment we’re not getting what we deserve and it’s pretty tough.”