BRADLEY Smith will make a clean break from the KTM Red Bull team at the end of the MotoGP season and not remain involved as a factory test rider in 2019.

The Oxfordshire rider says he will turn his focus on returning to the grid in 2020, with opportunities to race next year having all but dried up.

Smith, who competes in tomorrow’s British Moto GP at Silverstone, will be replaced at KTM next year by Johann Zarco.

The 27-year-old, from Forest Hill, had been targeting the vacant seat alongside Franco Morbidelli at the new SIC Yamaha satellite team for 2019, but it now appears that ride is destined to go to Moto2 rider Fabio Quartararo.

“I’m not going to be riding for KTM in the future,” he said.

“My vision is to be back in 2020, so I need to find myself in a situation that allows me to be able to do that.

“It’s a shame that I’m not going to see this project through how I necessarily wanted to.

“But the fact that I’ve had an impact in the last two years will always stay there and we’ll see what comes in the future.

“But basically my options are not with team orange any more.

“So I need to think about the other things available and what’s going to help me get back on this grid in 2020.”

He added: “I will do the very best I can for the project and hand over the very best bike I can to the new riders in November.

“I’ve stuck by my word and there’s no reason to go back on that now.”

With his 2019 plans still to be decided, Smith is well aware that this could be his final home MotoGP.

“It could be my last, so I’m just trying to embrace everything that goes with it," he said.

“It’s an awesome feeling to be here with the British

fans.So try enjoy them as much as you can, put on a good performance and you never know what the future will bring.”