San Juan Villicum.- The Briton is one of those riders who seems to have been racing all his life, after becoming, in 2008 and at just 15 years old, the youngest winner in the history of the championship (Donington Park).
In the 11 seasons he was in the contest, Redding had a total of four wins. Apart from the one mentioned in 125cc, in 2013, already in Moto2, he won the other three, which served him that year to proclaim himself runner-up, behind Pol Espargaró.
After debuting in MotoGP with Gresini and Honda (2014), the following year (2015) he signed for Marc VDS (Honda), before passing through Pramac Ducati (2016 and 2017) and finally Aprilia (2018). After a very poor season in which he finished penultimate and with only 13 points in his locker, Redding decided to take two steps back to gain momentum and went to race the British Superbike Championship (BSB) in 2019. And against all odds, he won it.
This gave him the strength and cachet necessary to sign for Ducati in WorldSBK, where he finished runner-up last year, 55 points behind the champion (Jonathan Rea), and with five wins on his account.
In his second exercise on a Panigale, Redding is third in the general table, 43 points behind second (Rea) and 72 behind the leader, Toprak Razgatlioglu, before donning the BMW suit with a view to 2022.
Before making the leap to the German manufacturer, the #45 admitted to Motorsport.com that he had weighed up the possibility of returning to the MotoGP World Championship, although the response obtained was surely not what he expected.
“I valued the option of returning to MotoGP because now I am a different rider than I was when I was there, and because I think I never had a real opportunity, with a bike that gave me options to win races,” Redding replied, this Thursday, from San John Villicum .
“I talked to a couple of teams, but they all said that I am already 28 years old , that I am too old. Now the teams focus on the younger drivers, but I don’t believe in that system. Riders like me sacrifice a lot to get to MotoGP, to make money. Now, if you haven’t shown something in two years, you’re out,” says Redding.
“It is a lack of respect for the pilots. I think that, at a minimum, one needs five years in MotoGP. And if in that time you don’t get it, then you won’t get it. But now the rush there is is crazy ”, settles the Ducati man.
(Click on this link or on the image to see the youngest riders to win in MotoGP)
