Monster Yamaha's Bradley Smith spent the first day of MotoGP testing in Sepang getting comfortable on his satellite YZR-M1 and dialling in electronic settings to get back the feel he had in Valencia.
The Oxfordshire rider, who is now Britain's best hope for podiums in 2014, has to deal with a litre less fuel due to new regulations and says the characteristics of the works motor have changed to reflect the need to increased fuel consumption."
"The new bike is quite different in terms of how it works and engine characteristics. I spent the morning just trying to make it feel like it did last year because if you have a good feeling, you can work out what the good points of the new system is," said Smith, speaking at Sepang.
"The chassis is the one I tested in Valencia and I feel at home on it. We put a setting in that is in the ballpark and I have been riding with that. The laptime is already quite close to where we would like to be and we just continued to work on the electronics for the rest of the day.
"I want to get happy with the bike like I was in Valencia, so that starts with electronics now and settings afterwards. We want to put a bike underneath me that I know, that isn't going to catch me out or feel alien.
"We really need to work on some race distance stuff, fuel consumption so we have an idea what that will mean come race day. We will probably do a race run on the third day and finish in a good position.
"Having to save another litre of fuel changes the characteristic of the engine. We have got less fuel and it isn't easy to keep performance so we will find the best compromise."
