Redding: Until I get other offers, I won’t look

After a positive showing at the Dutch MotoGP round at Assen Scott Redding has revealed he is awaiting further offers to ride in 2019 before he makes a decision regarding his future.

The Englishman has been identified by current team Aprilia to lead its testing outfit next year as the Noale factory bids to develop the RS-GP into a fully-fledged top-six challenger.

But Redding said he has not been paying too much attention to Aprilia’s offer in recent weeks, and has instead focussed on rediscovering his enjoyment during race weekends after a difficult opening to the year.

“I haven’t really thought [about it],” said the 25-year old at Assen. “I just come here, ride the bike and go home. I want to get a couple of options and we’ll see.

“Right now my mind is just free, do what I want and do the results, go home, come back again and do the same. Until I get some real offers on the table that are respectable, then I’m not even going to look. There’s no point. What I’m doing now is not bad.”

Expanding on the change in approach to his race weekend at Assen, Redding continued: “The difference is I’m not trying to develop the bike. I’m just doing what he [team-mate Aleix Espargaro] does. I’m just riding it. That’s the only difference from the last races to now.

“All the races up to Mugello it was like, ‘You need to perform, you need to perform.’ Me thinking that means top twelve, but the bike struggles to do it. I’m trying to make the bike better to do it.

“After I saw I won’t be riding next year I said, ‘OK, fuck it. I’ll just ride the bike, leave it and do that.’ Now I gain more. My package is OK. It’s not great. It’s not terrible. It’s OK. I just come in, get changed and do the same later on.”

Redding revealed the stress involved with fighting to prove to Aprilia he was worthy of a full-time seat in its racing squad for 2019 led to him “breaking down” during the Italian Grand Prix.

The Italian factory has since confirmed Andrea Iannone will step in to ride alongside Aleix Espargaro in 2019 and ’20, and Redding has subsequently attempted to place less pressure on himself.

“I don’t even concentrate on it,” he said. “I just do as I want. I don’t even think about riding the bike. I come in, give my information, we tweak here and there. I walk out the pit box and check the times. That’s it until the next practice. Then we go.

“I want to ride the bike. That’s the difference. At Mugello I had that much pressure and the bike wasn’t working, I was breaking down because I don’t want to get on it. I’m there to make results that I can’t physically do.

“After that I thought, ‘You know what? I’m not destroying my mind anymore.’ I go ride the bike because I want to. I fought with them today because I was able to and because I wanted to.

“That’s what I go racing for. It’s not the position, but at least I’m not there out the back struggling to finish last. I push a bit and get a bit. At least I can go home and say, ‘At least I had a good race.’ Not finishing last and thinking, ‘Here we go again.’”

Focussing more on the correct tyre choice and riding style improvements rather than developing the bike led to two of Redding’s best results in 2018 – a twelfth in Barcelona and a 14 at Assen, 16s back of the race winner.

“There are so many things going on,” he said. “Two races ago I said, ‘F**k it. We’ll leave the bike, do a bit of this, a little bit of that. At the end you can turn the bike inside out and the result will be the same.

“You can get more from the right tyre choice, riding style changes, a little bit of electronics and that’s it. That’s what I understood. I’ve just been quite relaxed in the last couple of races, I do what I want. I’m making the best results now.”