James Ellison Tech3 Yamaha MotoGP rider

Ellison's Assen revival proved to be a false dawn

It's been three races since I last wrote here - Donington, Germany and the USA - and that's three more races of frustration for me.

It's not me that's got worse, I know I can do it.

I proved that in pre-season testing in Catalunya, when only Colin Edwards, Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden passed me, and in Assen - but it's so frustrating when it doesn't come together.

To compete, what you need is a bike which has decent traction, can turn and has decent braking ability, and all year it seems we've been lacking one of those things.

At Assen, I only lasted a few laps but finally it seemed to work.

That proved that the ride is there and I can do it when the bike is balanced correctly, but it just didn't handle anywhere near the same way at Donington.

They won't spend money on giving me a new frame if they can't see any benefit from it, but if they don't give me one, I'll always be lacking something

At the start of the race I got past a few of the riders, but then I noticed there wasn't enough weight on the rear, and I was struggling with cornering, so I just had to plod round.

In Germany, it wasn't the brakes, but we struggled a lot for traction - it was a bumpy course, and at Laguna too I was struggling with balance.

It sounds like I'm making excuses all the time, but there is always something wrong.

In the best class in the world with the best riders on the best machines, you need everything to work - it's not working yet, so we're struggling.

All us Yamaha riders are on different chassis.

Rossi and Edwards have more reason to smile than Ellison

Carlos Checa's is a step behind the one Valentino and Colin are on, and I'm on the one that no-one has got on with so far this season.

It's a vicious circle - they won't spend money on giving me a new frame if they can't see any benefit from it, but if they don't give me one, I'll always be lacking something.

I know what I want, and what works and what doesn't, but in a factory team you can't just expect the designers to make a new frame for a new rider.

Hopefully things will work out better next time out, at Brno in the Czech Republic.

It was where I had my first ever GP race, and last year we had a good test, until I crashed and had a really bad elbow injury which upset the whole of the second half of the year.

I enjoy riding the circuit so fingers crossed I'll do well.

It just depends whether the bike works.

James Ellison is writing a regular column for this website throughout the MotoGP season