Smith on crew chief change: I follow KTM’s decisions

Bradley Smith has stated his willingness to follow KTM’s lead, after it was confirmed the Englishman would work with a new crew chief for the remaining seven races of the 2017 season.

In the wake of finishing eight places behind test rider Mika Kallio at the Austrian Grand Prix, it was decided that Smith’s head technician Tom Jojic would make way for Esteban Garcia, a name that has been involved with KTM since the beginning of its MotoGP project.

Smith revealed the decision for the personnel change came from Pit Beirer on the Sunday evening at the Red Bull Ring, a day when the factory’s motorsport director had spoken of the need for improvement in the Englishman’s side of the box after recent performances.

Speaking ahead of his home grand prix, Smith was open in admitting his performances needed to improve, and believes a recent one-day test at Misano, where he worked with Garcia for the first time, boded well for their working relationship.

“I do have a new crew chief for the rest of the year,” Smith said. “It will be Esteban Garcia. The main reason is that KTM would like my results to improve. They believe this is the best way to make sure that happens this season.

“Esteban has been moved over from the test team. He was Mika Kallio’s crew chief in both the Sachsenring and Spielberg. He’s been working with the project since the beginning. He’ll be taking care of me. He’s been involved since day one.

“We worked together already in Misano on Monday. Really, it’s not a big difference in the way of working. I mean, each person has their own ideas. The wealth of knowledge Estaban has, because he’s been through the last 20 months of development with KTM with many different test riders – I think he worked with four test riders last year – he’s seen that development process go through.

“His wealth of knowledge is pretty impressive. His way of working is logical, like most crew-chiefs. He did a great job in Spielberg and KTM wanted to implement that for me. I feel lucky they have done that. Let’s see how the rest of the season goes.”

In light of Beirer’s recent comments to the German speaking media, Smith was far from aggrieved with recent events. Instead, he spoke confidently about his belief in turning his current situation, in which he has scored points in just two races this year, around.

“I follow whatever their decisions are," he said. "At the end of the day, when I look at what Pit has managed, over the course of his career, and what he continues to manage, I go with whatever that guy honestly thinks.

“He came. He analysed both in Brno and Spielberg and made the decision on Sunday night after Spielberg. I don’t question anything, if that’s what that guy observes and believes and I’ll follow whatever that plan is.”

“The expectation is there from everybody involved; from myself but also from the main sponsors, so on and so forth. I mean, Mika couldn’t have picked a better race to make us all look stupid because there were a lot of guys there. It was a phenomenal race.

“I’m going to say it, but Pol got off lucky. His brake broke on lap two and he didn’t have to come to the end of the race and get an arse whooping by the test rider. There’s no way he would have followed. Hand on my heart - he didn’t have a chance. Mika’s form that day was phenomenal. It will be interesting to see Mika’s wildcard, which I think is going to be in Aragon. We’ll see how we go.”

The Englishman was also keen to point out the change wasn’t a result of any breakdown in relations with ex-crew-chief Jojic, with whom he worked previously in 2011, Smith’s first year in Moto2.

“We’ve had an amazing relationship since we were working together in 2011. It never ceased, even when we weren’t working together. It wasn’t that the relationship wasn’t working. It’s just from the managerial side and that’s for the project.”

Beirer’s recent comments, which suggested Kallio may take Smith’s seat in 2018 should the Englishman’s performances not improve, have clearly shown a ruthless side of the Austrian company, one of which Smith is only too aware. 

“I think that’s always a possibility and I don’t shy away from that. But also I understand that if I came to the road and my ability isn’t enough to take this project forward then – not that you would stand aside – I would understand enough to go, ‘You know what? I’m not the right person.’

“But I wouldn’t be sitting here if I thought that’s the situation that we’re in. I just hope that this change will be a chance to put all those doubts and questions away.

“Honestly, if I sat here and thought that I didn’t have it in me, I’d be worried. But I know it’s there and I know we need to implement things in the right way. I’ve done this process many times. I just think that after reassessing everything, and having this reshuffle, and the KTM deciding what’s going on with my side of the garage, now’s the time to move forward.”