Scott Redding says he felt he did ‘a great job’ during his two seasons with the Aruba.it Ducati team in the WorldSBK Championship but opted against re-signing for 2022 because he wasn’t prepared to ‘ride for nothing’.
The Briton made his high-profile WorldSBK debut in 2020 after a redemptive title-winning campaign in the British Superbike Championship (BSB) that revived his profile in the wake of a bitter MotoGP exit that he says almost led to his retirement aged only 25-years old.
Immediately impressing by winning in only his fourth outing at Jerez, Redding pushed Jonathan Rea all the way to a season finale showdown en route to the runners-up spot.
Identified as a title contender for 2021, Redding was the only rider capable of regularly dicing with Rea and eventual champion Toprak Razgatlioglu, but a handful of lacklustre results prevented him from ever getting into the title fight.
With Ducati’s high expectations leading to a rift in contract negotiations for 2022, Redding subsequently exited the team to join BMW for this season, two years after turning down the German manufacturer’s offer for the 2020 campaign.
“I want to prove to BMW that I am there to win races and work on the project,” he told Visordown in an exclusive interview. “They wanted me two years ago and I turned them down at the last minute, which was a bit wrong for me to do.
“It was a difficult decision because I had to put my name on the map and I had to do it with Ducati. But now they have come back for me again and now I want to prove I am worth the wait.
“I don’t do it because I love it…”
Though the former Pramac Ducati and Aprilia MotoGP rider admits he would have coveted a third season with the Aruba.it outfit, he says he isn’t prepared to ‘risk his life’ for nothing.
“I would have liked to have stayed because the bike was good, it was the third year and we were getting close - second half of 2021 I was one of the highest point-scoring riders. But you can’t change those things, I am not going to ride for nothing.
“I have a house to pay for, a life to have and my career won’t last forever. This is business for me. My motivation for racing is winning, I don’t do it because I love it. Do I enjoy it? Yeah, sometimes, but my enjoyment is standing on the top step of that podium with a #1 trophy in hand and I want to get paid doing it.
“I am risking my life and I think I deserve to be paid in a way to value myself but it’s difficult with the economy the way that it is, but some guys get dropped and that’s gold for another person.”
Achieving 12 wins and 37 podiums over two years, though Redding - who will be replaced for 2022 by the rider he succeeded in 2020, Alvaro Bautista - didn’t meet Ducati’s title target, he says the return to the top step has done wonders for his confidence in the wake of a fraught swansong MotoGP season spent at loggerheads with his own Aprilia team.
“I was quite happy. After not winning races for so many years in GP, it was nice to be winning races and being competitively on the podium, that really boosted my confidence as a rider, which I missed for many years.
“I feel I did a great job, I really wanted to win the championship but we got unlucky a couple of times and unfortunately to win a championship you can’t afford that because every point counts.
“But I gave my best every time I was on that bike, no matter the weather or the situation, I gave absolutely everything I could give.”
