Scott Redding is ready and eager to develop the factory Aprilia after signing a deal with the Italian factory.
Speaking ahead of the British GP, Redding said he was looking forward to getting all the benefits of riding a factory machine, including development not available to him at Pramac Ducati.
Redding signed a deal with the Italian factory after Sam Lowes was told he would not be riding for the team next season. Lowes looks set to depart the MotoGP grid, with Redding given another opportunity to show his worth.
Redding said that “I’m quite happy to go there. I seem to like the style of the bike, the way I see it on track works well. The positives for me going to Aprilia are the tyre consumption, the engine delivery and the handling of the bike.
“Only negative is acceleration and power but they’re working still to improve that. For me is the biggest thing to going to a factory and going with Aprilia is they are developing they are on their way up they’re not like Honda, Yamaha Ducati where they are kind of reaching the level then it’s all the fine tuning. They’re still climbing like Suzuki, like KTM they are climbing up the ladder which is what I want to be involved in I want to develop it and I want to make it work.”
The Briton added that he feels he is now experienced enough to give advice and feels he is good at giving valuable information back to the team.
“I believe in the past I’ve been good at giving back information and I think I can help them develop the bike to make it a competitive bike at some point. I’m not saying next year the bikes going to fight for a championship, that’s not going to happen, but already with results sometimes top six sometimes top eight it’s not bad.”
Redding also revealed he almost made his debut with Aprilia in the class in 2013, before signing with the Gresini Squad.
““I almost signed with Aprilia three years ago. But I didn’t feel the bike was really ready and I wasn’t ready to develop a bike from zero.
The reason I said no three years ago was because I was in Sam’s position, not ready to develop a bike. It’s not a Moto2, it’s not a Superbike, it’s not something that seems to work okay it’s either yes or no, it’s black and white. I wasn’t really ready for that and I knew it was early for them. It was still a young project and they wouldn’t be getting results in the first two years.
