WHEN things are not quite going your way it is often a temptation to resort to change, but not for Bradley Smith.

After two rounds of the MotoGP season, the 27-year-old is still looking for his first points of 2018 ahead of tomorrow’s Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Front tyre issues saw Smith slip out of the top 15 and finish 18th in the opener under the lights at Qatar, before he crashed out in changing conditions in Argentina with eight laps remaining a fortnight ago.

In his second season with the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team, the consensus is that the Austrian outfit still remain a work in progress.

Last year proved to be a major learning curve, where Smith kept his ride despite struggling for the most part of the campaign before picking up 15 points in the last three races.

That suggested a positive 2018 was around the corner, but with other teams taking another step forward in development and testing not going quite as planned due to teammate Pol Espargaro undergoing surgery, KTM are still playing catch-up.

However, Smith remains confident progress is being made and was encouraged by certain aspects from Argentina ahead of this weekend.

“It was an exciting start to the race and I think I made up twelve positions in the first laps,” said Smith.

“I was fully committed in the patchy conditions.

“Unfortunately, I had a few situations where riders hit me and I lost a lot of ground.

“It was a frustrating way to end the race but there are a lot of positives from that weekend.

“I found a good feeling with the bike from FP1 and the performance was there in the race, so I need to keep doing the same things.”