Redding: Ducati 'didn’t realise what it had', claims no 'bad feeling'

Scott Redding says challenging for regular podiums and wins would be ‘ideal’ in shutting down those criticising his WorldSBK switch from Ducati to BMW. 

Following three extremely successful seasons with Ducati - won the 2019 BSB championship before claiming 12 race wins and 37 podiums during two WorldSBK campaigns - Redding elected to make a somewhat surprising switch to BMW, who have won just once since returning as a factory outfit in 2019. 

Redding, who joins Michael Van Der Mark at the German manufacturer, is also making a switch from V4 to inline-four machinery for the first time since his Moto2 days. 

During his two WorldSBK seasons Redding was a consistent title threat, despite being unable to bring the world title back to Ducati, something that’s been missing since 2011. 

While Redding and Ducati’s split was largely dictated by contract disagreements, the Brit claimed there’s ‘no bad feeling’ toward the Bologna-based manufacturer. 

"I can’t knock Ducati, in any way," said Redding when speaking exclusively to Visordown.com. "They were really good to me, but we didn’t agree on some things for future contracts and I have other brands that are almost begging to have me and Ducati, I think, didn’t realise what it had so we didn’t agree but there was no bad feeling, no issue."

Regarding his move to BMW, many have criticised the move due to it potentially leaving Redding further away from his aim of winning the world title, at least in the short term. 

Nevertheless, Redding remains committed to shutting down those who feel it was a wrong move: "It would be super nice to put the bike regularly on the podium and win races,” Redding continued. 

"That would be ideal because I have had a lot of criticism from people - which is always the same, people always want to criticise - about the change to BMW. 

"So I want to stick two fingers in the air to those people and show them we can do it and that will be my main motivation this year.

"The grass always looks greener on the other side and sometimes you realise you have gold, but it is what it is. 

"It doesn’t matter what I am on, I always have to prove myself. I have gotten as far as I have in my racing career by proving to people… in BSB people wrote me off, said it would be the end of my career and then I won and people were like s**t, the kid can ride."