It’s been a rough season for Nicky Hayden, who arrives to this weekend’s Red Bull Indianapolis GP in the unfamiliar territory of 14th in the MotoGP World Championship. Hayden has never finished worse than eighth in six previous years in the world’s premier motorcycle road racing series, and was its champion in 2006.
“I struggled in the beginning with the team,” Hayden said. “It’s a great bunch of guys, but the team had to make a crew chief change after the third race. The language barrier was too big. His English wasn’t very good and my Italian wasn’t very good. I have a Spanish guy now, Juan Martinez, and he speaks good English and is fluent in Italian and that was a big step forward.”
Hayden didn’t have a top 10 in the initial three races, but he’s finished in the top 10 in five of the past six, including a season-best fifth at the USGP at Laguna Seca Raceway and sixth in the last race at Brno in the Czech Republic.
“I spent 10 years on a Honda and it was a big change when I came to Ducati,” Hayden said. “I struggled more than I expected. It’s been a tough road for me. That’s how it goes sometimes, a big transition at the beginning of the year. A nightmare, really. We’ve started to chip away at it and the past couple of races have gone a lot better. I’m starting to enjoy it again and we’re making progress. Is it enough? No, but it’s good to see the hard work paying off.”
Even this deep into the season, Hayden’s adaptation to the Ducati remains a work in progress.
“It’s a lot different than the Honda,” he said. “I grew up on Japanese bikes my whole life and this is Italian. The electronics package is different and the chassis is carbon fiber. The Japanese bikes are aluminum. I’ve ridden different Japanese bikes and they react somewhat similar, but the Ducati reacts different. It works when it’s set up good, but we’re still learning how to set it up. The electronics control everything, they’re so advanced, and it changes how you ride on every part of the track and your corner entry.”
Kevin Schwantz, the 1993 World Champion, has attended about half of the MotoGP events this year, and recognizes that the Ducati is a difficult bike to ride, but isn’t sure what causes it.
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