Redding says current form on BMW WSBK bike "hard to accept"

Redding began life as a BMW rider in Spain last weekend as a replacement for the ousted Tom Sykes, having left the factory Ducati team with which he scored 12 victories and secured a best finish of second in the championship in 2020.

While the BMW M1000RR wasn’t quick enough to trouble the front-runners in the season opener, Redding was easily the slowest of the marque's four riders, trailing rookie teammate Ilya Mikhalchik as well as Bonovo MGM duo Loris Baz and Eugene Laverty.

The British rider could qualify only 16th at Motorland Aragon, four tenths and eight positions behind substitute Mikhalchik, and made little progress in the opening full-distance en route to 15th place.

Sunday brought a new ray of hope as he finished the Superpole race in 12th place, raising the possibility of a top 10 result. But after slipping outside the points-scoring positions, Redding went off several times during the first half of the race with brake issues, dropping to 25th and last in the order.

An animated Redding showed his frustration as he took the escape route at Turn 8/9 to rejoin the track, before ultimately bringing the bike back to the pits to retire on lap 11 of 18.

Speaking after a weekend in which could muster a single point, Redding said BMW needs to analyse what went wrong in Aragon and come back stronger for the next round of the season at Assen later this month, saying “we don’t deserve to be in this position.”

“This weekend was not what I expected it to go like, even considering we had two days of testing on Monday and Tuesday,” explained Redding, who has switched from the V4-powered Ducati to a BMW bike featuring an in-line four cylinder engine.

“Then we come to the race weekend and we lost lap time. So, for me it was hard to accept this. 

“We worked very hard to try and solve our problem, but we really never got anything to help us through the weekend. It was hard. 

“We need to understand why it was different, we need to understand why we are suffering more than with last year’s bike. 

“There have been some changes on the engine and the bike, so we need to understand why this is happening because the potential is more. 

“Then in the last race of the weekend, I just had no grip, the brakes where not working so well and the engine overheated. 

“That is just how it goes. There is not much more to say. We need to work, understand and try to come back stronger because we don’t deserve to be in this position.”

Scott Redding, BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

BMW’s motorsport director Marc Bongers explained that the Aragon pre-season test took place in unusually cold conditions, masking the issues that became evident when the temperature rose during the race weekend.

Bongers added that it’s BMW responsibility to provide a bike that works to Redding’s liking, having signed the Briton as its star rider for 2022 to build on its race-winning campaign from last year.

“He cannot find a feel for the bike and especially out of the turns we struggle with the drive. We have not been able to supply a solution for this, Bongers said.

“During the test, which was pretty cold, we did not run into these issues but in the race weekend it got hotter and we clearly struggled. We have to find a solution for that soon because this is not acceptable for either of us. 

“Of course, he is clearly upset. These boys are very motivated, and Scott is a top rider. We have to deliver a bike for him so he can be fast. Because he is professional, he fairly soon calmed down again and then we just have constructive meetings and have to find a way forward.”