| By Simon Strang | Friday, July 24th 2009, 18:15 GMT |
Nicky Hayden has got ever closer to the pace in recent races as he gained a greater affinity with the tricky Ducati GP9. After today's practice session at Donington Park he met with the media to discuss his progress and his feelings about the wet first practice hour for the British Grand Prix.
Q. How was it today?
Nicky Hayden: It was little bit of a funny session with the weather. It was the same for everybody. Started out really slippery and struggled a lot more than I would have liked in the full wet conditions. I didn't have a good rhythm and good feeling and couldn't really push. But as the track dried out we made a few changes and I felt better.
But at the end I ran off at the last corner of what would have been my penultimate lap and came on to the track mid-way on the front straight, so that automatically killed that lap and the next lap. But I don't think anybody learned a whole lot about today. We really just need to see what the weather does tomorrow. If it's wet we learned some stuff, but there wasn't a whole lot to gained if it's dry.
Q. Sounds like you were using a lot of traction control?
NH: You know the feeling is strange because you don't have a lot of feel. It's actually crazy how the electronics have gone. It's wrong... in the wet, fully leaned over… you are not supposed to do that really but that's what we are doing so.
Q. Does it take a lot to train your brain to do that?
NH: Yeah! You are fully leaned over there, knee on the ground, in the wet, at Donington, and basically you would be as you would with a qualifier in the dry a couple of years ago.
Q. Does the bike hesitate as it limits the spin?
NH: Yeah, once it was drying out we had a bit too much traction control and it wasn't running freely. It was trying to run then it was still cutting and sometimes when the rain tyres get soft as they get hot, even when they are hooked up because they are moving so much it gives the electronics the impression that it is spinning. So the electronics work when they don't really need to.
Q. Do you think they should ban it?
NH: That's easy to say, but I think it is getting too much, you know. Like I say, fully leaned over, in the rain at Donington and you go wide open, I mean that's not exactly real racing. But that's the future and the world we live in now as far as technology is concerned and stuff, but I wish they could put some kind of cap on it or something because it is just taking over.
Q. Is it taking away the importance of the rider?
NH: I don't want to say that because I still believe the same, fast, guys would be winning but I think it would be more challenging as far as riding the motorcycle. The feel, the moving, the throttle control and the technique.
Q. Does it make it difficult for younger riders to come in and learn?
NH: No I would say it makes it easier. Especially for 250 and 125 guys. I think it makes it a lot easier for those guys to come in. Believe me, without traction control it takes a lot more time and a lot more… it was a learning process. Now, if anything, you have to forget what you already know and re-programme your brain to do that.
Q. With the team is it about finding your comfort zone, off the bike as well as on it?
NH: No. Off the bike stuff I don't make a big deal about this and that. Some riders maybe a little bit, but as long as you got the feeling on the bike the rest of that stuff don't matter I don't think. Not to me. I just got to get the bike tuned the way I like it and the rest of that stuff shouldn't matter.
Q. Where are you at with that?
NH: I think we are getting close. Sitting here telling you guys about it is one thing, but I need to go and prove it on race day. But I feel like we are on the verge of getting a solid result.
Q. Are you sad to be leaving Donington?
NH: A little bit. I'm excited to be going somewhere new just because I like the new tracks and going there for the first time is fun, but I like Donington.
Hayden calls for rider aid limits
| By Simon Strang | Friday, July 24th 2009, 18:12 GMT |
Former MotoGP world champion Nicky Hayden believes that the use of electronic rider aids 
should be curbed in the premier category for the good of the sport.
The factory Ducati rider, who is in the middle of his seventh Moto GP season, says that while he accepts the championship must embrace technological advances, he wishes there was a way to stop traction control from having such an overbearing influence on a riders' throttle input.
Asked if he would like to see the technology banned, Hayden replied: "That's easy to say, but I think it is getting too much ,you know.
"Like I say, fully leaned over, in the rain at Donington and you go wide open [on the throttle], I mean that's not exactly real racing.
"But that's the future and the world we live in now as far as technology is concerned and stuff, but I wish they could put some kind of cap on it or something because it is just taking over."
Hayden added that while he did not consider traction control to impact on the pecking order, he did think that it had removed some of the challenge of riding a MotoGP machine.
"I don't want to say that [it takes away the importance of the rider] because I still believe the same, fast, guys would be winning but I think it would be more challenging as far as riding the motorcycle," he said. "The feel, the moving, the throttle control and the technique.
"It makes it easier for the 250 and 125 guys to come in," he added. "Believe me, without traction control it takes a lot more time and a lot more... it was a learning process.
"Now, if anything, you have to forget what you already know and re-programme your brain to do that."
Nicky Hayden is desperate to improve his form at this week's Italian Grand Prix so that the home crowd does not have to see a Ducati in the midfield.
Casey Stoner believes his team-mate Nicky Hayden will get up to speed on the Ducati as soon as he regains confidence after recent crashes.
Nicky Hayden believes he has made great strides in acclimatising to Ducati in recent weeks and will be able to demonstrate that improvement at Jerez this weekend.
