Britain’s Scott Redding will roll down the Qatar pitlane this afternoon and into his first MotoGP season with Octo Ducati full of confidence after a solid pre-season gave him the confidence he needs to fight at the front of the pack in 2016.

Redding believes that he has the talent to challenge this season and the Desmo GP15 proved its pace in the hands of Andrea Iannone last season, so the Gloucestershire rider says he just needs to put the pieces together. The first of those pieces, enjoying riding, is already in place.

“I am enjoying it a lot more this year. I actually want to go and ride the bike, which is a massive difference. It feels like I can do something with the bike. The bike is good enough and I believe I have got the talent, it’s just putting those two things together,” Redding told BSN while out running.

“We changed the bike quite a lot in Australia compared to Valencia, Jerez and Sepang so we could see what base we had. We worked a lot more on tyre life so we have more data and we know more, we can work more in that area.

“This year’s electronics are better because it’s more of a level pegging. We have same tyres, electronics, so we feel we should be more competitive. We should be a little more ahead of ourselves instead of playing catch-up - starting at the same level, I suppose.

“It should be a lot more down to the team and rider this year. We should have more chance to mix it up with the front guys. To be honest, anything was better than last year. We have a little more turning, a little more stability, a few small things that add up.”

Get the new issue of the BSN app, out today, in our free, 27-page MotoGP season preview. Away to your app store now, Dougal.