TeamAspar.net caught up with young Bradley Smith during the British GP weekend at Donington. Here are his thoughts on the 2009 season, on being a part of the Aspar team and of becoming a racer and following your idols…

Bradley, what’s your view of the season so far? Are you satisfied?
Yeah. It’s much better than last year and much better than I really ever expected. I know I needed to perform this year, but what you need to do and what finally happens doesn’t always add up to the same way.
But I’ve been very happy. I’ve made one mistake which was Germany, but up until that point everything was really smooth.

For you, the win’s been a long time coming. Everybody knew you had the potential but it just never quite happened. Do you think this is your breakthrough year, is everything finally coming together?
I think last year was really a breakthrough in the fact that I was given a factory bike, had a chance to ride with the Aprilia and really see what I could do. The results didn’t come, the win didn’t come and there was quite a lot of crashing. But I think that was just trying to find where about my limits were and how hard I really could push.
I suppose this year it’s just putting everything together.
I’m really happy with the structure of the team. Working with my mechanics again for another year is great. Everyone’s had one year experience with the bike and we’ve really showed we’ve made a big step again this year with consistency and also with performance.

How is it for you, being the only foreigner in an all-Spanish team?
You know, it seems that Aspar welcomes other people from the outside. Obviously Gabor (Talmacsi) won the world championship with them in 2007.
I was surprised when they kept on pushing. They were asking for me from midway through 2006 . So this has been a long time coming, but I’m glad I’ve come here. It was the right moment to chose to come here as well.
It is a bit strange, but I’ve got Italian guys, we work as our group. The team’s all open but each groups works for their own. I think it seems to work quite well.

How did the MotoGP Academy prepare you for the world championship series? Is it a good foundation or is actually being here totally different?
It’s good preparation with the focus, with the professionalism, with the structure. When you finally get to these grand prix teams, they really do structure it for you, but I’ve also learned to structure it for myself. So even if a mechanic or someone isn’t used to that particular structure, I structure myself. I know exactly what plan I’m going to use and things like that. And I think the MotoGP Academy taught me that.
Also having the opportunity to ride at such a level in the Spanish championship on world championship circuits, you seem to pick that sort of thing up.
It’s very difficult to go from a place like Mallory Park or Knock Hill places like Mugello. It’s just not the same. So that gave me a really good steppingstone.

Alberto Puig said at some point that he really likes your “British character” in terms of that you’re very focused when you work and that you don’t let yourself get distracted from other stuff. Is this something that comes naturally for you or do you put that down to having gone through the MotoGP Academy?
I think it’s a little bit half and half. Alberto’s structure is very very good. It’s a winning formula. It’s not the only winning formula, but basically what he said for me was “do this, do this, do this” and finally I got to where I am. And a lot of riders have succeeded with his formula as well, so he definitely manages to structure.
You know, I think he helps to put it inside of a rider. When he puts his ideas and his structure inside of a rider, then it’s up to you what you want to do with that. You can see with Dani Pedrosa, he’s created a great rider there.
And both, me and Simon, are riders that have come through Alberto’s hands, and both of us are in the top 3 of the world championship. So he definitely does a good job.

What do you think about the many very young riders making their way through the Spanish championship, the Redbull rookies, the MotoGP Academy and into the world championship series?
I think starting earlier and earlier poses the question: where are they going?
I started here when I was 15, which means that I could be here for 15 years and I’d still only be 30. Now that’s quite a scary thought, just being here in GP’s for 15 years and inside this paddock.
Some riders don’t start until maybe 12, I know other riders who never got on a bike until they were 18. It all depends which way you come out of it. I think there is no right or wrong way. The only thing is, if you’re young you can get disheartened very very early. You try and arrive in world championship. You try and you fail, you try and you fail, you try and you fail. Finally this rider goes down and disappears. He was a very good talent but it’s lost.
For me, 15 or 16 years old, 2 or 3 years in the Spanish championship or the Italian championship, maybe some wildcards, I think that’s the best way to start here because this can be very hard.

Obviously you have to be fairly mature to be able to deal with the challenges here. Do you see a difference between yourself and other teenagers your age?
I suppose it’s difficult for me to hang around with people my age. There are a lot of people my age who’ve got very good focus and know what they want, but then there’s other people that don’t. So I think it just depends what sort of person you are.
You know, also inside this paddock there’s riders who think, just because they’ve arrived in world championship, that they’ve made their name, that they’ve made themselves and that they can now stay here forever.
I don’t see that. I don’t want to be just a world championship rider, I want to be a world champion, not only in 125’s but also in 250’s and maybe one year also in Moto GP.
You have to be a realist. Every year there’s only one world champion in each class, so you have to make sure you’re in with a chance. If you do it right, it can be you, but if you don’t then sometimes these things go wrong.
It’s difficult for some people I think. Like I said, I had very good people around me, my family, friends, mechanics, team, they keep everything going in the right direction. I think some young riders can get lost and lose what their real objective is.

How did you get started with motorbikes?
Basically, we had a motocross track. So I started in motocross when I was 4 or 5. We owned the track so I was going out in the digger making the track and things like that. I didn’t show any interest riding bikes until 6. When it was my birthday I just said “Ok, now I’m 6 and it’s possible to ride”. That Christmas my granddad bought me my first motorbike and from there it’s just been I think 7 years in motocross at quite a good level. Then I broke my leg quite badly in 2003. And when I’d recovered from that I started road racing or trying road racing.
From that moment till now it’s just been crazy. I think I only rode 2 years of road racing and then I was put into the world championship. You know, that’s pretty tough. But now I’ve been riding road race bikes for 6 years, it feels like a lifetime. I’m enjoying every minute.

At the moment so many people want a piece of you. The media attention must be huge, also with you and your team mate being at the top of the championship. How do you deal with that and is it a big difference to last year?
There’s been an incredible amount of interest in British riders over the last few years. For me it’s doubled. Every single year we’ve had double the amount of interest to the previous year by the press. I think that’s down to Nick Harris, the media guy, and also down to our results as riders. There’s a lot of work that goes into trying to rejuvenate British interest in British riders. Because, ok, it’s been a while since we’ve had any real results to cheer about. But I suppose, at the end of the day, I quite like the thought that I helped create this interest and that we’re promoting road racing and improving it for others. You know, other young riders or other championships. We’re getting a lot of media interest, and finally that brings sponsors, that brings money, that brings backing. I think we still got a long way to go.
It’s difficult because it’s been so long and suddenly they want you to do so well. So suddenly the focus is really on you, which is a little bit difficult to deal with. You got 4 or 5 media guys, constantly interviews and things like that, they really want something to put into their newspapers or magazines that’s gonna be good.
But it’s great because people know your face. Once again I’m here at Donington. Everybody seems to know me, I’ve got so many fans, and you know that means we’re doing our job good.

Speaking of improving road racing for other riders, you’re putting your name on bikes, you support them. This is obviously something very important to you.
It’s creating opportunities for younger riders. You know, I was given a great opportunity with the MotoGP Academy. There were opportunities open to me. And I see that quite a few riders don’t have those opportunities the way that British championship is at the moment. And I just want to help young talent or young guys that were in my situation in the right way. I want to create roads or pathways for them to go and be able to do those sorts of things. It’s just giving people opportunities, not putting money in, it’s not trying to be a manager. It’s just trying to help people to get where they want to go and opening the door. You know, you can pass through here, if you want to go to Supersport, you can. If you want to continue your career in 125’s, you can. If there’s a chance for some of the young riders coming up to go to world championship, we can start to help them and bring them up to the level where they need to be. Just somebody there to help them on their way and show them the road to take.

How do you like Donington as a track?
The first part is really really nice. The final part, you know, the slow corners, gives it another idea, another part that’s completely different. You have to really ride aggressive here, it can’t be smooth like a track like Mugello. You have to really be aggressive, break late and really attack this track, which probably means you have to completely change your riding style. It’s difficult for some riders to do that but it’s a great feeling for me. I’ve had to work hard, this morning I’ve had some problems, this afternoon I was there. This is a great thing.
It’s a shame that we leave Donington with such a great natural track and go to Silverstone that’s just completely flat and an airfield. But it will be one of the longest tracks, one of the fastest tracks of the Moto GP calendar, so really we can’t complain.

People are afraid that Silverstone might just be boring to watch and not very appealing for bike racing. Have you had a chance to ride the track already?
Well, I did it in a simulator. It’s improving and it looks really good.
But when you’ve ridden in Donington for so long and the heart of England is at Donington for Moto GP, it’s gonna be a bit sad, but that’s the way it is.

How much technical knowledge does a rider actually have to have? Of course you have to give the input for the set up to the mechanics, how important is it there to know the in’s and out’s of how everything works?
It depends a bit what a rider wants to know. Some riders just get on the bike, close their eyes and full gas. Whereas me, I’m more of a thinking rider, I like to understand, I like to speak with the mechanics and discuss what the opportunities are, what the ideas are and what the plans are. It’s up to you really. Look at Rossi. Rossi knows exactly how the bike goes together and that’s why he is as good as he is. He can probably tell the mechanics which way to go. You know, I’m not saying he doesn’t need them there. Obviously everybody needs them, and he and Jeremy Burgess have a great partnership. They work together, they know the directions they need to go.
And for me as a 125 rider, I like to know which way the bikes go. Sometimes you can get a little bit confusion and you need to take a step back and just put it in the mechanics’ hands. But I think in general you need a certain understanding how the bike works and goes together.

Possibly being an idol to younger riders yourself, who are your idols?
I suppose, because I came through the MotoGP Academy, Alberto (Puig) and Dani (Pedrosa) were the role models, were the ideas, were the people that I was trying to follow in the footsteps of. Of course they’re incredible riders, Dani, Alberto in his time was an incredible rider, so it’s never gonna be easy. But I try to look towards them. I try to use their mentality, their focus points and the positives of the way that they work. So I’d say Dani is probably the rider that I look up to most.

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