Britain’s Scott Redding believes he only needs to make a significant change in one area and he can again give reigning WorldSBK king Jonathan Rea a hard time.
Redding says he is lacking grip in long corners and has tried everything to find it - even using the soft SCX tyre which he suspected wouldn’t work. And he was right.
“I tried to use the X tyre in the second race and I did not finish the race that strong. I was worried about it and that is why I have never done it,” Redding told bikesportnews.com.
“But we did the Superpole race with it and I thought maybe, maybe there will be something but I knew deep inside it wasn’t really going to work. But I have it everything anyway to try. It is all I could do. Maybe if I had stayed with the zero and my gut feeling it could have been better or worse.
“On Saturday I crashed because I did not feel good with the front or the rear but in the Superpole race I felt good with the tyre all the race and I could push, but I knew there was not much left from that.”
Redding had some areas where he just could not compete around the Motorland circuit, and it was the same in Aragon 1 and Aragon 2.
“It has been the same both weekends,” he said. “I physically cannot to more myself and the bike just cannot really help me. We are just surviving with out head above the water; we are not swimming for the moment. I do not really like racing for that; that is why I crashed yesterday. Did I settle for fifth or push to beat Johnny? I am going to push to beat him.
“I am not really in a position to beat him. I was trying everything I had and it was too much for what he bike was allowing me. It was a shame that we had two times racing here because it was two times a kick in the nuts, but we get to move on. We got a win in the Superpole race on Sunday, which is good for the soul, good for the team.
“I hope we can fix the bike a bit because we can win race. I just need the bike to give me a little bit more and we are there.”
He of course did win that Superpole race, and he was determined to stop Rea’s unbroken run of Superpole race wins since the very first in Australia.
I am happy to win because I was always say that Johnny has an advantage in the Superpole race. I was fucking determined to beat him. I was just did everything I could. I was not taking no for an answer.
“And I could do it; it was great for me, great for the team and it gave us a great spirit to go in the afternoon. I had the same mentality in the afternoon and that is why I fight as hard as I can. I just fight.
“But, there is just a bit with the tyre or the bike that is not giving me enough to fight at the end. The biggest downfall was to crash in race one, but it happens.”
Now with Rea 36 points ahead of him, Redding has one simple strategy to deal with is ever-potent opponent. “Win,” he said, succinctly.
That is all I can do. I go out to win and I give everything to not give him more, but if the bike cannot perform in a good way to the end of the race I cannot do anything.
“We will see in Barcelona but when we tested there, there were two corners where we struggled in Barcelona, bit like here. There were two parts of the circuit where I struggled and it is enough to give him a gap and I cannot recover. So I think that Ducati and the Aruba.it racing Team will work together to try and help me in this way.
“I just need a little bit more help with grip in the longer corners. Once we can do this we will be in a competitive area to fight to win again. At Barcelona I want to be in position to take some points from him. I gave him a nice comfort zone and I need to do everything I can to take it away.”
