Redding must "forget" podium target for Barcelona

Since the arrival of a new Kalex-built swingarm for July's Donington Park round, Redding has finished in the top three at least once per weekend, following up third place in the Superpole race at his home venue with third in the opening race at Most and second in the first Magny-Cours race.

However, the ex-MotoGP rider expects this weekend's visit to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to be much tougher, and instead hopes to use the event to make improvements for the 2023 season.

Redding was more than a second off the pace in last month's two-day in-season test at Barcelona that was attended by all five factory teams.

"To be honest, Barcelona is going to be one of the hardest races of the season for us," Redding said. "We suffer in those long corners, but we need to learn. We tested there, but so did a lot of other people, so I want to improve in that area to be better for next year.

"I know it's going to be difficult, so I'm probably not aiming for the podium, I need to forget that and just think about where respectably I can finish and just focus on that for Barcelona.

"[At Magny-Cours] I expected more, which is why I was fighting more, Barcelona will be one where we take a little step back, understand a few things, and maybe when we go to Portimao it can be better."

 

Redding finished second in the opening Magny-Cours race behind Alvaro Bautista, helped by Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea both crashing out of the race early on in separate incidents.

However, the following day he could only manage fifth in the Superpole race and sixth in the second full-distance race, despite Bautista being controversially taken out by Rea in the latter event.

Explaining his slump in competitiveness, Redding admitted that a rain-soaked Friday practice had served to obscure BMW's real level of competitiveness in the first race and that his weaknesses were more exposed on Sunday.

"I was losing a bit to everyone on acceleration in a couple of corners," explained Redding. "It's another weak point but there was nothing we could really do. I had to over-ride because I lost on acceleration, and I started to destroy the front tyre.

"It was one of those races, I held on for as long as I could, but I had too much of a disadvantage on acceleration to fight them.

"[On Saturday] people had less track time in the dry, so in my opinion the rider could make more of the difference, but then [on Sunday] everyone else had time to check the data, change some things and make a step."