Redding: “Maybe selling motorcycles interests BMW more than winning”

Redding, who joined BMW at the beginning of the 2022 season, has seen the German manufacturer make a raft of changes in an attempt to bring their M 1000 RR closer to the front of WorldSBK.

Some of the upgrades have had a tremendous effect, leading to Redding being able to fight the likes of Toprak Razgatlioglu, Alvaro Bautista and Jonathan Rea at venues such as Most, Donington Park and Magny-Cours. 

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However, the gap between BMW and the leading manufacturers was again a worry for large parts of last season, which led to Redding being unable to crack the top seven positions in the championship.

Despite bringing a new aero package to the front of its bike for 2023, Redding still feels as though BMW are set in their ways.

Speaking to GPOne.com, Redding said: “I signed the contract because I wanted to win and they told me they would do what I wanted to win. And they made changes. The fork and brakes have changed, but some things will never change and you have to accept that”.

But Redding, who has not won a WorldSBK race since Race 2 of the Argentina round in 2021 whilst competing for Aruba.it Ducati, believes BMW’s prowess when it comes to selling motorcycles is ‘maybe’ trumping their desire to become a winning force in racing. 

“I don't know why, maybe it's more related to marketing,” added Redding. “I want to win the championship and so do they, but maybe selling motorcycles interests them more than winning the World Championship.”

Redding is again in WorldSBK action this week as testing continues at Portimao. Michael Van Der Mark - Redding’s team-mate - is also set for action as are the Bonovo Action BMW pair of Loris Baz and Garrett Gerloff. 

Redding finished last week’s two-day Jerez test in 12th place, 1.4s down on Razgatlioglu while also finishing as the second fastest BMW rider after Baz narrowly pipped him to P11.