Britain’s Bradley Smith believes the new Michelin tyres, spec-ECU and other changes to the MotoGP regulations have hampered the progress of satellite teams and doesn’t see how he can make any more progress in terms of results.

While any frustrations at consistently taking his package to its limits a year ago was tempered by a slew of strong top-six finishes, 2016 has yet to yield much reward. A strong ninth in Austria after fighting through from 14th on the grid was not enough to upturn Smith’s furrowed brow.

“I think that we’re finally seeing the fact of changing these tyres and regulations has not helped satellite teams like us at all. If anything, we’ve taken a massive blow and a massive kick to the goolies, because it’s not giving us anything,” Smith told bikesportnews.com at the track.

“Before it was, OK, you’ve got sixth position, so at least you feel like you’re succeeding. But now it feels even worse. It’s difficult like I said. I don’t want to sound all Mr Grumpy, and down and negative, but it’s difficult to be positive about ninth place. That’s the situation we have.”

Unlike the majority of the field, neither Smith nor team-mate Pol Espargaro enjoyed the luxury of testing their Yamaha M1s at the Red Bull Ring prior to the event. But Smith feels the lack of top-six finishes are down to a lack of mechanical upgrades for a package that is some way off a fully competitive level.

“I don’t know if we can even make any more progress, you know? At the end of the day, I don’t believe that the package that we have can do any more. I think that that’s just what it is. That’s honestly my feeling. We’re doing the best we can. I think you can see that from the results this weekend.”

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