Britain’s Bradley Smith has changed his approach to MotoGP race weekends by adopting a calmer and more measured angle while trying to cut out swearing and temper loss.

It seemed to work at the Argentina race where the Monster Yamaha man qualified well after being left with only one tyre on which to do it and then moving the setup between warm-up and the race.

It was a case of me having to change my approach and I’ve spoken in depth with the team about it. It was not an easy thing for me who just cares so much about my job but it was something I needed to do. Self-criticism is hard to take but facts are facts and I had to understand that people respond to a normal tone of voice much better than F words and shouting which I have been known to do. When you are calmer and raise your voice people certainly take more notice than before,” said Smith.

“There is a time and a place for it and the Japanese Yamaha engineers certainly respond better to this calmer approach. This weekend was a prime example because I was struggling for grip all weekend but we found a solution between the warm-up and the race. Guy, my crew chief, was the most stressed I‘d seen him for a long time but we got the job sorted as a team and he was the happiest I’d seen him at the end of the race for a very long time.

“Going into Qualifying One I only had one lap to nail it and one tyre to do it on.  I had Karel Abraham following me and I thought as I crossed the start line if you can stay with me on this lap you deserve to go into Qualifying two. I pulled out a great lap and it was a case of not panicking.

“To have found that calmness and self-belief is crucial and there is a great vibe in the team with everybody appreciating everybody’s efforts. The team are not here to make my life hard and I’m not here to make theirs hard. At the end of the day this is a job where we need to enjoy ourselves and do the very best we can.”