Scott Redding in front of Johnny Rea (Kawasaki), Ducati brand colleague Michael Ruben Rinaldi, Alvaro Bautista (Honda) and teammate Chaz Davies 2020 in Aragon, his fateful route last year (© WorldSBK).

Ducati rider Redding’s private tests in Murcia

After Scott Redding couldn’t drive at all in Jerez in January due to the bad weather, he continues with private tests in Spain. Official test drives are not planned again until March at the Autodromo do Algarve in Portugal. The Englishman doesn’t want to wait that long, so he took to the track with his own Panigale V4S. For this he rented the racetrack in Murcia, on the Circuito in Fuente Álamo de Murcia, northwest of the coastal city of Cartagena.

Scott Redding on his own Ducati Panigale V4S, the 2020 vice world champion, would like to try again next season to saw Jonathan Rea’s throne again. Since this will definitely be better positioned with the new Kawasaki ZX-10RR, a huge task (© WorldSBK).

Redding on his private test: “I stayed in Jerez after the canceled tests. There I trained with my track bike and my own street bike, the Ducati Panigale V4S. It was wonderful, I was very hungry to ride the bike because everything worked out delayed, and we couldn’t test here a few weeks ago, so I wanted to swing my leg over the Panigale V4S, and I’m looking forward to getting back on the racing Ducati V4R soon.”

The next official test dates

Portimao test: 4th – 5th March
Jerez test: 9th – 10th March (Honda only)
Misano test: 15th – 16th March
Estoril test: 24th – 25th March
Barcelona test: March 31st – 1st April
MotorLand Aragon test: April 12th – 13th

Photographed by us almost a year ago at the World Cup opener in Australia, from the left Alex Lowes, Jonathan Rea (both Kawasaki) and the three-time third Scotty (Ducati), who somehow still looked a bit skeptical after the 2nd race on Sunday afternoon.

The WorldSBK provisional calendar

So far there is no news about the still unclear two rounds for Phillip Island and the still undetermined event. As we already stated at the end of November 2020, the overseas races in particular are also in danger. As in MotoGP, some changes can still be expected due to the pandemic. Even the season opener in Assen has not yet been cast in concrete. The fact that Portugal, as an absolute Corona hotspot, is currently closing its borders, should not pose a real threat for the date in May (at least for the time being), as some clerks prematurely noticed. Our hotel has already been reserved, but as in the previous year, many races are likely to have few or no spectators.