At 6ft 2in, Leon Camier towers over the Drive M7 production Honda on which he will roll down Silverstone’s pit lane tomorrow in front of home MotoGP fans for the first time. But he’s typically laid back about the whole shebang.

The sparkly eyed 28-year-old will ride in front of his home crowd on a MotoGP bike for the first time this weekend and it hasn’t fazed him one bit; nor does talk of whether he will keep the ride for the next round at Misano, the rest of the year, or next year. “It is what it is,” says the former British Superbike champion, not wanting any kind of fuss made about this big weekend.

And it is a big weekend for the Andorran resident. It’s his third race as Nicky Hayden’s replacement and no weekend is bigger than in front of your home fans. He is big, it is big, the bike not so much…

“To be honest I felt really comfortable on the thing; it wasn’t a problem. I might look big on it but position wise and everything, I felt comfortable. I could move my body around; I could do what I wanted with my body, which is a big part of it,” said Camier, speaking to bikesportnews.com about the tiny RCV1000R.

“There are a few steps of style that I have to change, from what I understand a lot of them use the rear brake in right-hand corners – that is something I have to work on, to be able to use the rear brake a lot more. It seems to be something that I could help if I get my head around it. It’s not something you change over one weekend. It’s something you really have to take time to get the feeling for, then it might just give you that extra one or two per cent that you are looking for.

“I love Silverstone and I have some great memories there from the last few years. It will be a tough weekend because we have a lot of work to do to keep improving but the important thing is to keep the same mentality and work ethic. I think the best thing is to not build our hopes up but to go out there and keep doing our job. If we can stay focused and keep improving then the results will come for sure.”

Read more on this in tomorrow's new issue of Bikesport News