Bradley Smith is extremely confident that he and new Monster Yamaha Tech3 team-mate Pol Espargaro will be in a position to achieve great things heading into the 2014 season.
At the first 2014 pre-season test, which came immediately after the
final race of last year in Valencia, Smith ended proceedings in second
position and just three tenths of a second down on Repsol Honda Team’s
World Champion Marc Marquez.
“If that is already the starting level, then we (Tech3) have got to
take the opportunity with both hands and see where we can end up,” Smith
explains.
“The Factory team is always going to develop and improve - you have to
understand that - but Yamaha really do look after the satellite riders.
With both Pol and I being young riders coming through, I think we will
get really good support so I’m quite excited.”
A keen talking point during this off-season is just how close the new
‘Open’ specification machines will be to the likes of satellite
contenders Tech3, LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl, GO&FUN Honda
Gresini’s
Alvaro Bautista and Energy T.I. Pramac Racing’s Andrea
Iannone.
“I think qualifying is going to be a lot closer,” continues Smith ahead
of his second MotoGP™ campaign.
“We are going to see a couple of upsets
in qualifying where, with the faster engines and maybe on a really
grippy track, we will see a front row (from the Open bikes); from the
FTR-Yamaha, I am quite certain we will see a front row.
“Aleix and Colin (Espargaro and Edwards, NGM Mobile Forward Racing) are
going to have more power and more fuel, so they can open that thing
wide open for their qualifying laps. I don’t know their spec, but they
can produce more power because over a race distance they have more fuel.
Yamaha will give them good stuff, absolutely.”
Smith’s premier class career began last year, achieving a trio of sixth
place race finishes in the Grands Prix of Catalunya, Germany and
Australia. Across the season, he was classified inside the top ten on a
total of 13 occasions.
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