INTERVIEW
BRADLEY SMITH
P80
Now a sophomore in the fray
that is the world's premiere disci-
pline of motorcycle racing, Smith
- amongst an ad hoc collection
of racing leathers, boots, gloves,
helmets, as well as bicycles, tire
pumps, various pairs of shoes
and gearbags - took the time to
sit down and talk about a number
of broad-stroke topics currently
at the forefront of his very young
career. Friendly and relaxed,
Smith was well at ease and ani-
mated when hit with the following
questions below. Read on to see
what #38 had to say.
Bradley, on the satellite
Monster Yamaha Tech 3YZR-
M1, you are at a slight disad-
vantage to the works motor-
cycles of Valentino Rossi and
Jorge Lorenzo. How do you
make up for it?
Obviously riding your motorcy-
cle is always going to be a com-
promise. It all depends on where
your strengths are and obviously
you're trying to play the bike to
your strengths, but you also try
to improve your weaknesses
as much as possible. We had a
great bike on the brakes at Qatar.
I felt really good and really con-
fident, but because of that we
lost a little bit coming off of the
corner – especially coming off
the last corner at Qatar because
I was losing three to four bike
lengths. It's a shame because it
teaches me that I need to follow
the top guys in practice. [Marc]
Marquez followed me in Free
Practice one and Valentino fol-
lowed me in warm up, so they
all knew what their strengths and
weaknesses were, so they then
work on what they are not good
at. Whereas me, I didn't learn
that so I didn't know where I was
strong or where I was weak un-
til the race. Unfortunately in the
race it was too late. That's one
thing that I need to learn from that
experience."
Where has your 2014 speed
come from?
Fundamentally, I have to put it
down to the bike. Yamaha basi-
cally gave me Jorge Lorenzo's
bike at the Valencia test last year.
That's where I was second fast-
est. [Smith ran the second fast-
est at the annual Valencia Mo-
toGP test]. A lot of people forget
