Ben Spies says he wants to make a "fresh start" to his 2011 season from this weekend's Catalunya Grand Prix, but admits his tough start to the campaign has sapped his confidence.
In his first season with the factory Yamaha MotoGP team, Spies is yet to finish on the podium and has just two sixth places to show from the opening four grands prix. The American does not feel that he or his team have done anything particularly wrong, just that the results have not been coming so far.
"That's the way racing is, it's not always great," said Spies. "The start of the year was OK in Qatar. We went to Jerez and obviously I made a mistake in the rain and we had a small problem at Estoril.
"We got a result and it was good to finish another race at Le Mans – a track I don't really care for too much – and it wasn't a great result, but just to get points was a good feeling. But now we come to a big stretch of races and some tracks I do like."
Spies conceded that the lack of results so far had sapped his confidence.
"I just want to get some confidence going again," he said. "I believe that we can get back. We need to almost start a new championship. I believe in the team and Yamaha's working as hard as it can. So I just need to get some confidence going again and I think it will be OK."