Ducati’s Cal Crutchlow is taking a back-to-basics approach to this weekend’s Assen MotoGP round and trying first of all to get comfortable on his Desmosedici as he currently feels frozen and unable to move around.

The British rider is going his own way with setup ideas and not just copying team-mate Andrea Dovizioso and Pramac rider Andrea Iannone simply because they are faster. He intimated he is looking towards the setup he had on the Monster Yamaha which enabled him to set pole position in Holland last year.

Crutchlow says their settings, with more weight over the front of the bike, do not suit the way he rides but first of all he needs to be comfortable on the bike and not be worried that he doesn’t know what it is going to do next.

“I’d be happy to finish the race, first and foremost. I know what I can do around here, last year I was battling the guy who won the championship so I have always had some not bad results and at the Sachsenring we seem to be very competitive. I’d like to emulate that but aiming for the podium is past what we are able to do at the moment,” said Crutchlow, speaking at the track.

“We need to be faster and be more competitive first. You always aim to win but the reality is it’s going to be difficult to win but I will be trying to do my best wherever it may be. We will assess the situation tomorrow.

“We went back to the setting that I prefer because we keep going to change to everyone else, and look how they are riding, how much weight they have over the front or what they are doing. It doesn’t suit me or my style.

“We need to improve my riding on the bike because in the moment I don’t do anything on the bike, I am frozen and I need to be able to relax and ride the bike how it should be ridden instead of freezing every time because you don’t know what the hell it is going to do.

“We need to start to improve that and once I get the confidence to be able to ride the bike and let the bike move and do what I want it to do, then we will be able to be more competitive and better than what we are.

“I’m not comfortable on the bike, so we have changed some things there and try again tomorrow. You have to be able to move and I can’t because it’s moving too much itself, or one reason or another.

“Our side of the garage is looking more towards what I am used to rather than worrying about what the other Ducati riders are doing because they are faster. We need to look at the reasons why we are not good on the bike.”