Ben Spies expects switch to 1000cc engines to suit his style

The American took his maiden MotoGP race win at Assen in his first season on the factory Yamaha, but ended the campaign 84 points behind team-mate Jorge Lorenzo as he took fifth in the standings.

"The goal this season is just to be better in every way," said Spies in a video interview as part of Yamaha's 2012 season launch.

"For me, it's not just challenging my team-mate, but challenging everyone and being at the front. We need to make another step and be more consistent than last year. I believe with the new bike we can do that."

Spies said the more powerful bikes would allow him to return to the riding style that he used when taking three AMA Superbike titles and winning the World Superbike crown as a rookie.

"I'd like to think the 'elbows' style hasn't left at all, it's just the 800cc bikes were more difficult to ride with my riding style," he said. "The new rules will benefit the way I ride the motorcycle. Hopefully I won't have to work on riding the bike differently and I can ride the bike like I want to."

Although arch-rival Honda has topped most of the pre-season testing so far, Spies said he had been encouraged by Yamaha's performance and rate of development.

"I think the Yamaha engineers have done a fantastic job," he said. "We went to Sepang twice now and we had a lot of parts to test. In the last couple of years it's been more refining and tuning, but we had a lot of new parts.

"We've reached some good solutions on different things with electronics and the engine package. We've been working quite hard over the winter and we have some more stuff to try. The bike's just been getting better and better every test, which is good."