Britain's Bradley Smith remains confident he will have a place in the 2014 Monster Yamaha MotoGP line-up as he hasn't been told of any changes to his plan or contract for next season.

The youngster has a two-year deal in place with the team but has come under the spotlight as Yamaha have signed Pol Espargaro and are trying to retain the services of Cal Crutchlow - but won't give him any hope of a factory bike.

"I haven't been told any different about my contract. As of now my situation is the same and my 38 will be on the bike for next year. We have seen in the past there has been a three-rider team inside of Repsol and Yamaha will just have to figure it out for themselves. They know how this works," said Smith, speaking at Laguna Seca.

The Oxfordshire rider has had a good season so far, slowly improving and cutting his gap to the leaders but fell foul of an engine problem in California.

"I'd like to think I've proved a few people wrong. I can understand the people that doubted me in the first place. I didn't come into this season with a lot of self confidence. I knew it was going to be a hard challenge and it has taken longer for me to get up to speed than I expected but I'm now starting to understand the bike and tyres.

"The engine just cut out down the start/finish straight. I know Yamaha are looking into it to see exactly what went on but that's the way it is. Luckily I managed to catch it before we did too much damage, as soon as I felt it, I pulled in the clutch and coasted off to one side. I don't think it was a massive problem.

"There is still a lot of work to do for the rest of the season. It's going to be hard now to improve from here until the end. I think even this weekend, we found something again but we weren't able to show it."

He also believes that Stefan Bradl's performance at Laguna is now his benchmark and hopes to emulate the German later in the year. The pair are both graduates from Moto2 - as is championship leader Marc Marquez.

"Stefan pushing for a great result is the benchmark. He and Marc are lifting the game and it shows that I still need to do a lot of work between now and in 12 months' time if I am going to keep my ride and progress in my sport."