Scott Redding “needed to hit rock bottom”, now paying himself for Ducati return

"I have to prove that next year I wo👍n’t pay to race again."

Scott Redding, 2025 WorldSBK Jerez Test. Credit: Gold and Goose.
Scott Redding, 2025 WorldSBK Jerez Test. Credit: Gold and Goose.
© Gold & Goose

Sticking with the same team but changing manufacturers is both a risk and an opportunity for Scott ꧑Redding in🦹 2025.

The British rider’s return to Ducati with the MGM Bonovo team for the upcoming season is one of the most intܫriguing narratives of this year: Redding has won with Ducati before in WorlꦛdSBK, but on the factory team and when he was five years younger.

On the othe💦r hand, Redding is, by his own admission, more motivated now than he has been at any other point in his career.

“We can say that this is the most motivated Scott Redding of his🐓 career,” Redding said in an interview with the Italian publication GPOne.

“I happen to think I should’ve had t🌱his mentality even three or five years a🥀go but, when I moved to BSB, I was coming from a dark period.

“It was a difficult championship and ♐I enjoyed it. When I came൲ to [World] Superbike I told myself I had to be more professional.

“But I was coming here as a champion and I was motivate🥂d to win, especially on tracks that I’d never been to. That was my goal.

“The second🐬 year I was more at ease but my focus was different.

“I probably needed to𝄹 hit rock bottom to seౠe how good what I had was.

“I had a great package and the bike and the team were great. But you always feel like there’s ౠsomethin🅷g better.”

BMW was the destina🌊tion for Redding to search for his “something better” in WorldSBK, but despite flashes shown here and there nothing consistent ever materialised on the M1000 RR for the British rider.

The return to Ducati, albeit on a satellite team, sees Redding reunite with the technical 🧔package – with three additional years of development behind it – with which he was able to contend reg💃ularly for race wins in WorldSBK.

“After three yeaꦐrs I felt that if I could get back on that bike I would have to use it 100%, and I would have to realise that what I have is really what is best for me,” he said.

“That’s what gave me the motivation to take the risk to stay on this team with a Ducati. Even thoug𓂃h I do༒n’t get paid and I have a family to support.

“This i🍒s a big return for me. I have to prove that next 🔯year I won’t pay to race again.

“I have to 🍬get paid, that’s the way things go, but I was in a situation where I could take a bike I thought I could win with, or go somewhere else and then end my career.

“I was on the edge but my manager and my wife and my 🐬family pushed me to make that decision.

“I thought: ‘It’s now or never’.

“I wan♛t it badly because it’s something that I have to do, and that’s what makes the difference.

“I’ve never been more motivated because I believe that I have the right bike, th꧒e right people, the right team and everything that I need to make it.”

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