Smith: No guarantees that Pol's chassis is better

Bradley Smith is keen to let his results do the talking this year and despite not having the same chassis as his teammate, Pol Espargaro, Smith has had plenty to talk about on track. The Englishman is having his best season riding the Tech3 Yamaha and he’s confident that at every race he can arrive with a base setting that works.

“From the Monday test here last year we found something that worked a bit better at this track and even though it wasn’t a big change to the setting it was a step for me,” said Smith. “We analysed the data from Le Mans and Mugello because that’s where I think we’ve made a big improvement. Compared to the factory riders we need to improve in braking at the start of races and to keep the bike more balanced and to keep the rear grip as the temperature starts to rise. Keeping that balance will be our objective for this weekend and we’ve a few things to try to do that. We need to work a bit on rider position because there’s not a lot that we can try based on geometry. Here’s a good place to test it all because it’s cool in the morning and roasting in the afternoon!”

When asked about the difference between the two bikes Smith countered any questions that it is a negative to be on the older frame by saying that what’s new isn’t always better.

“I didn’t know that there was a difference with chassis until someone asked in Mugello. I haven’t talked to Herve about it, I just speak to Guy about it and he explained the situation. Until we run out of our potential solutions it’s OK because we’ve got data from the first six races and the winter tests and it’s easy for us to turn up to a track on the Friday and be fast. If we came to a track with something new we could end up chasing ourselves and as long as we’re still in front of our competition there’s no real reason to change it. There’s still solutions for us to find with this bike and I totally understand why we’re going to stay with this chassis.

“There’s no guarantees that the other chassis is better just because it’s better. There’s some things that I’d like to try that Pol can try but there’s no guarantee it’ll be better. There’s plenty of things that look better on paper that don’t work better on track. I can’t worry about it because it’s not something that I can change but it’s nice to still be beating the guy that has been given everything.”