The Indianapolis Motor Speedway press office organized a teleconference with Factory Ducati rider Nicky Hayden last week. Naturally, the journalists were keen to hear what Hayden had to report from the first two tests at Sepang, but they were also interested in hearing his thoughts on the debut of Marc Marquez, how the departure of Valentino Rossi affects the Italian factory, and the changes in the structure of Ducati since it was taken over by Audi.
The press conference transcript follows below, courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway press office:
2013 RED BULL INDIANAPOLIS GP TELECONFERENCE
Nicky Hayden, March 14, 2013
MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Red Bull Indianapolis GP teleconference. Our guest today is 2006 World Champion Nicky Hayden. Nicky is from Owensboro, Kentucky, and is entering his 11th season of MotoGP, and he is starting his fifth consecutive season with the iconic Ducati team. Nicky, thanks for joining us today.
NICKY HAYDEN: All right, thanks for having me.
MODERATOR: Nicky, you guys have tested already twice in Sepang and you made some really good progress it seemed like in the second test. The bike seemed to come alive and you got closer to the pace set by the Honda's and the Yamaha's. Was there a real breakthrough or was there a evolution in the GP13?
HAYDEN: Well, unfortunately I would say there wasn't a huge breakthrough and it wasn't quite that dramatic. It is true that we definitely reduced the gap to the front on some things. The track probably wasn't as good for the second test, there was a lot of rain during the night and a lot of guys wasn't as fast, and me and Dovi were quicker than the first test and reduced the gap to two seconds to 1.5 or 1.4 or something. It still is a lot. It is clear that we still have a lot of work to do, but we left there feeling a little bit more positive with some of the new things that we tested. It was stuff that we tried, we kind of hit on a couple things, so it was nice to find direction. If I am honest, the flight home after the first test was pretty rough.
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