The American expressed his happiness with the new Desmosedici GP10 after the race, and now says he is feeling a lot more settled on the machine after entering his second season with the factory Ducati team.

“I just feel a lot more comfortable on it and also with the team. It’s the second year with the team after a long time on Honda bikes,” said Hayden. “It was a big change last year and I certainly didn’t adapt the way I wanted to, but this year things seem to be going a lot better. The communication with the team is a lot better than it was last year and I like the bike.”

Expanding, Hayden continued: “I would say the engine certainly is smoother, and has a better feel when you open the power and try to accelerate out of the corner. Now I need to go and be fast for a whole weekend from when we show up on Friday, and at a track we haven’t had two days of testing at, like Qatar. That was one of my targets for this off-season; to improve that. I guess we’ll find out at Jerez if that’s the case.”

Hayden’s discussion of the comfort he now feels as he goes into his second year with Ducati has something to do with the methods of operation. He and team-mate Casey Stoner work closely together, sharing information to help one another.

“Some things that work for him won’t work for me,” said Hayden. “But there are other times where he’ll come across something that works, and it’ll work for me. With the limited amount of track time we have this year and last year, even, you use every bit of information you can get.”

It is a process that spreads across the satellite Ducati teams as well, as Hayden added: “We share data and anything we want. To their credit, it’s open book around there. Even between Mika Kallio’s (Pramac Racing) crew chief to Héctor Barberá’s (Páginas Amarillas Aspar), they all work out of the same truck. Everybody’s playing for the same team around there, to try to beat the other manufacturers. There are no secrets, nothing like that.”

The elevation of Vittoriano Guareschi to Team Manager, whilst still maintaining his responsibilities as Test rider, has also been an added factor says Hayden.

“Vito has stepped in and has done a great job so far, and I’ve really been impressed with some of the things he has done. I’ve been a supporter of his from the beginning. A lot of people thought it was going to be too much for a guy with no real experience in that position. So far we’re off to a good start, and I think he’s a big asset to our team. I think we’ve got a good set-up.”

As the season progresses the new six-engines per rider rule will also play a part in how each team manages its campaign. Hayden touched on the subject and discussed how Ducati were preparing, after very briefly using a second engine in Qatar.

“The team has a plan for that,” he said. “On some weekends I’ll ride both bikes, but it just so happened in Qatar that we had tested there; we already had a pretty decent set-up. I actually just had one bike working well, and I didn’t really ever take the other one out except early on Sunday. That was just to do a lap to make sure it ran well in case I needed to jump on it for anything. But we’ll be using both bikes at most tracks a lot more frequently.”

Click here to watch Nicky’s interview at Wroom 2010

Ducati Marlboro rider Nicky Hayden is ready to build on the stronger second half of his season last year, as preparations for the 2010 campaign continue to gather pace.
The 2006 World Champion admitted that last year was a difficult one on the track, but a podium at Indianapolis and fifth-placed finishes in Malaysia and Valencia ended the season on an encouraging note.

“Last season was tougher than we’d hoped, but things don’t always go exactly as you planned,” he explained at Wrooom 2010 in Madonna di Campiglio. “We started the season with a couple of crashes and struggled for momentum, but I think we have to be positive about the progress we made with a lot of hard work from everybody. We were able to get on the podium at Indianapolis and then finished with two top fives in a row and made some big steps. We’re really excited for the new season, if we can pick up where we left off and keep trying to close that gap to the front.”

The Desmosedici GP10 which he will ride in the forthcoming campaign will be unveiled on Wednesday, and Hayden is optimistic about its prospects.

“We had a good test at Valencia. I like the bike and I think another off-season with the team will be a big help for me. We’re all working hard and will wait and see what happens,” said Hayden.

“What Casey did at the end of the year shows that our bike is very strong, and we’ve tried to improve it and the engine. This will certainly help us in 2010 to make it more consistent as the season goes on. We have a couple of different little tweaks to make but the bike is good. We have a strong package for 2010 and combined with some changes in the team there’s a lot of excitement about the season for me and everyone involved. There are some big changes but with changes come opportunities so we’ll see what it amounts to.”

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In an effort to cut costs after Kawasaki’s departure, MotoGP followed Formula 1’s lead and introduced substantial restrictions on testing this season. After the three pre-season tests, only single days at Barcelona and Assen took place during the championship – in contrast to previous years when there were more winter sessions and one or two day post-race tests at the majority of events.

Hayden has become more competitive in recent rounds – taking his first podium for Ducati at Indianapolis – but was off the pace at the start of the year, and now rues the lack of opportunities for more mileage.

“At Barcelona we had one test, and at the time I thought the test wasn’t that good, but as soon as we went to Assen I immediately felt a step in those next races,” he said.

“And then again at Brno – at the time we tested a few things and it wasn’t really clear, but I spent a whole day on the bike just testing and riding, and again we went to Indy and were another step better. It certainly makes me wish I had more testing.”

The American is confident he has now turned a corner and can stay with the front-runners for the rest of the season.

“When I ride the bike now, I feel a lot more comfortable,” he said. “I enjoy it. You’ve got to enjoy what you’re doing, and at times it was miserable.

“We’ve still got a lot of work to do, I don’t want to get carried away. But we’ve made some progress with the team, and me and [crew chief] Juan [Martinez] working together. We only started together at the fourth race of the season, that took a bit of time.”

Ducati confirmed before Indianapolis that Hayden would be retained for the 2010 season, ending rumours that Dani Pedrosa could take his place. Hayden said he was relieved that all his efforts to improve this year would not be in vain.

“It would have been a real shame, if you look at where we came from the first three or four races to where we are now, to go and start again would have been a shame for me and for Ducati,” he said.

“We’re just now starting to get real good communication, feeling at home in the team and on the bike. Hopefully we can have a good strong last part of the season, another off-season testing together, and start the season next year much stronger.”

He was extremely frustrated to be taken out at the first corner of last weekend’s Misano race by Alex de Angelis. Hayden had qualified sixth and reckoned he was on course for his strongest race of the season.

“That was certainly the best race pace I’ve had, and it was a shame because I could have really learned some stuff in that race and gained some experience on this bike near the front group,” he said. “I really was looking forward to that race on the grid more than any race this year.”

 Source: Autosport

Ducati has already tried and failed to clinch a big money swoop on Jorge Lorenzo and Italian veteran Loris Capirossi also turned down the Bologna factory before he signed a new Suzuki deal.

It was revealed in Indianapolis too that Ducati was also in pursuit of Dani Pedrosa with the Spaniard still not having committed himself to a new two-year Honda contract.

All have been linked with taking Hayden’s ride but the 2006 world champion said he was unfazed by all the constant talk linking him with the axe.

Hayden, who will find out whether he will be retained by Ducati during next weekend’s San Marino MotoGP clash in Misano, said: “I’ve been in this game long enough and like it or not, MotoGP is a business.

“And if you look at the result sheets, maybe my results wouldn’t be good enough. They’ve (Ducati) got sponsors and people to please.

“I realise that I probably made some hard phone calls on Monday with some of them 12th places. Do I like it? No, because when I look in the mirror, I see why they need to bring somebody else in because I haven’t got the results.

“So that hurts when it’s on the inside. But that’s the business and they’ve got to do what they feel best.

“I don’t know if just bringing in new guys every year is the right thing and the best way to fix the situation. So we’ll see what happens.

“I still got this challenge and really feel like we can do it and I’m not ready to give up just yet.

“So we’ll see what happens. Do I get my feelings hurt? No, I’m not that big a sissy.”

Hayden even joked about his situation when talking about the rumoured £7m-a-year offered to tempt Lorenzo away from Yamaha. “If they make me that offer they made Lorenzo, then all things will be forgotten.

“Eight million a year will patch things up pretty easy, so we’ll be good,“ laughed the Kentucky rider.

Source: MCN