Scott Redding (here between the Kawasaki pilots Johnny Rea and Maximilian Scheib, scratching his hat) photographed by us at his WorldSBK Paddock Show premiere in Phillip Island (Australia) on March 1st, 2020. After two years for Ducati, a new adventure begins for the English original.

Scott Redding for next season at BMW – possibly in a team of three

We have just received the official confirmation that next year the Englishman will no longer compete in red, but for blue and white. It is already certain that he will at least ride with “Magic Michael” van der Mark in the BMW works team. Possibly even in a team of three, because the contract negotiations with Tom Sykes are supposedly still in progress. With some critical comments about his work equipment, a possible change at Redding had proven to be possible, and now it became a fact. With that, of course, a real move begins, because at Aruba.it Ducati either Alvaro Bautista could return or Danilo Petrucci, who has fallen out of favour in MotoGP at KTM, should definitely be another hot candidate. But Petrux is known to be as difficult as Scotty, who was never able to match the results of his predecessor from Spain.

Alvaro Bautista photographed by us on Ducati after his victory in Aragon 2019 – the little Spaniard had won all the first 11 races of the season and the first problems only started from Imola and Jerez.

Only a few free (work) places are still available
At Kawasaki the places are taken and after Locatelli’s good results in Most it can be assumed that hardly anything will change at Yamaha because Toprak and Gerloff have already extended. The latter remains in the customer team, where Kohta Nozane is likely to get a second chance in 2022. According to a clear statement from HRC Honda team boss Leon Camier, the places in his team are not yet fixed. In this respect, his team and Ducati are expected to make an official announcement for the rider selection for the next season in the next few days or weeks. The speculations of some scribes were already marvellous, although a supposed insider of a relevant portal was completely wrong. Redding had prematurely announced that he would switch to HRC Honda and once again speculated heavily with it. But as a journalist you are not punished for false reports, otherwise various people from this guild would probably breathe sifted air.

Leon Haslam 2010 as a Suzuki pilot – the Englishman, often referred to as “Pocket Rocket” by his compatriots in allusion to his famous father “Rocket Ron”, is considered to be one of the best development drivers. But his stay with HRC Honda for a third season has not yet been confirmed.

On Friday it continues for WorldSBK in Navarre

See also our preliminary report on the next Spanish round on this page. We will report about it every day and on the track that Garrett Gerloff calls a go-kart track, the exit is still completely open, as was the case last in Most. However, it can hardly be more exciting than at the moment, because at the top there is a head-to-head race between the world champion and Toprak for the title, in which Redding could suddenly be back in the game at any time. The Englishman would love to compete with the number one on a BMW M-1000RR next season.

Tom Sykes photographed by us with his BMW 2019 in front of us before the start in BuriRam (Thailand) – his first season was quite promising, but then followed a problematic year and now things should look up again. But maybe he too will change the team instead of extending it with BMW.

Unless otherwise mentioned, applies to all images (© WorldSBK).