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Scott Redding 's first weekend as an MGM Bonovo Racing team rider can be considered more than positive. After constantly fighting for the top positions, the British rider prepares to leave Phillip Island with two fifth places in the bag and a fourth place clawed out in the Superpole Race. Not quite the results he was hoping for, but still a good place to start.
"The trajectory should have been: fifth, fourth, third, you wouldn't even believe how much I wanted it," Scott admitted, smiling. "Honestly, after the Superpole Race I was happily frustrated because I could taste the podium. I was fourth and I knew that in the last race I would have to mark the rider in yellow (Iannone, ed.) and the one in red (Bulega, ed.): I had to make a good start and give 105 percent to stay with them as long as possible."
A plan that Redding was able to put into action up to a certain point. "I got a good start and at the second corner I told myself I would just have to ride as hard as I could. I tried everything, but they were at 95 percent and I was at 105 percent. It was only a matter of time before they started going away. In some places I could catch up with them and I thought I could do it. I was focused on them and then Bautista passed me on the straight - he recounted - I knew there were only a few laps to go before the tyre change, but I made a mistake and had to catch him in the pit lane. I felt good and came out of the pit, but I think I was a little too fast, so I was penalized. I caught up with Iannone right away and wanted to pass him, but I decided to wait one more lap to see if I could keep up the pace by being in front of him, since he had been faster than me all weekend. Then Bautista passed me again. He was pretty fast today. I was struggling a bit more than Iannone, especially in the last few laps, but I pushed until the end. For a moment I thought the podium was within reach but a moment later it wasn't."
Three Top 5s are a positive result, but the British rider aspired for more on the eve of this Round.
"My goal was to get three podiums.That was my realistic goal, because I had no choice: I have to perform. It's just like when I was in BSB. There is no plan B: you have to do it," he explained. "Fortunately, in testing I found the setup with which to do it, otherwise it would have been a different story because I can't do it on my own - I need to have a bike to do it. At the moment, both me and my bike are at 90 percent, so we are still 10 percent short. When I was at home, I really believed I could be on the podium here. That's why I've been training all winter. When I got here, I told myself I should be happy if I finished the first race in the top six, without doing anything stupid. I finished fifth, I knew I could do more, and then I finished fourth. In the last race I was fast again and I lasted longer, but I've been on another bike for three years and there was a lot to learn in one weekend - I don't have the right speed, my lines are not perfect, and I'm trying to gather all this information to try to get everything right quickly. Now that we have so much data we will analyze it and try again in Portimao."
Redding dreams big, but for an Independent rider it is historically difficult to get on the podium frequently and even more difficult to think about winning. That's why it might be more plausible to imagine him fighting consistently for one of the positions at the foot of the podium.
"Honestly, winning will be difficult but not impossible. Phillip Island, for example, I like this circuit but it is not my favorite because it turns counterclockwise. Even when I raced here with the factory bike in my first year in Ducati, when the level of Superbike in my opinion was a little bit lower, I still couldn't win," commented the 32-year-old. "We'll have to see when we get to Europe and have two long races, because they were broken here and that changes the way you approach the race. With the package and the bike I have I hope to be consistently in the top 5 and on the podium. As for winning, with Toprak and Bulega in form it will be difficult, but not impossible."
With six Ducatis monopolizing the top six positions in Race 2, Scott was up against only his brandmates today. Would anything have changed for him if there had been other bikes?
"I was able to pass Toprak under braking, whereas last year it would have been impossible.That's because now I can do everything I want, whereas last year it wasn't like that, I wasn't able to do it. That's the big difference for me. However, it would be interesting to see more bikes on the track. I think the Ducatis have adapted a little more to this circuit, but it doesn't depend so much on speed, because this morning, I think, I couldn't pass Toprak by taking the slipstream. Whereas Bautista passed both of us. That's why I think it's not a matter of speed, we simply got more from our bikes than the others," noted the MGM rider, before talking about the differences he found between himself, Bulega and Iannone: "They are a little bit different from each other and what I do is different again. Sometimes it works better and sometimes it doesn't. They behave differently from me in the corners and come out of the corners better, but I think it's because of the set-up. As soon as I found a set-up that would allow me to finish in the top five I didn't touch it anymore, because I didn't need to pull anything else out right now."
