Blog

Scott Redding says he will focus on a ‘restart in Barcelona’ after fading into the background during the 2024 WorldSBK season opener at Phillip Island that yielded only a single points’ paying finish.

The 2020 WorldSBK runner-up was making his debut with the Bonovo Action Racing team having shifted from the factory arm of BMW’s WorldSBK effort to its sister satellite operation.

However, despite posting top ten times during official pre-season testing earlier in the week, Redding appeared to suffer with a change in weather conditions – which brought high winds, lower temperatures and intermittent rain – and subsequently went the wrong way on set-up.

Hindered further by a painful high-side at Turn 5 during the Superpole-preceding FP3 session, Redding subsequently struggled over a single lap to leave him a lowly 19th for the first two races of the weekend.

Though he rallied hard in Race 1 to bring the M 1000 RR home in 11th for a handful of points, he could only manage 17th in both the Superpole Race and Race 2. Keen to put the weekend behind him, Redding says he is now focused on a reset for Round 2 in two months time in Spain.

“It was a difficult weekend. I think we went the wrong way setting up the bike, I couldn’t improve the lap time like the other guys and go fast. 

“It was a strange week throughout the test here as well with the weather changing a lot, track grip changing a lot and I think we just got caught in the wrong way to go with the bike. 

“We go to Barcelona. Hopefully we can improve, because the bike is showing potential. We’ll restart in Barcelona.”