Scott Redding says it remains his intention to pen a new deal with the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team for the 2024 WorldSBK season despite the revelation of Toprak Razgatlioglu’s impending arrival.
The 2021 WorldSBK Champion confirmed between rounds that he will exit Yamaha in favour of a move to the factory BMW squad for 2024 and 2025, in one of the most surprising WorldSBK signings in recent years.
While the announcement itself has drawn widespread comment and analysis, it has also forced the spotlight on BMW’s current factory pairing, Redding and van der Mark.
Though a three-rider factory effort is not out of the question, it would stretch BMW’s resources considering it also supplies on-spec machinery to its satellite Bonovo Racing team too.
With WorldSBK reconvening this weekend at Misano, the deal remains a hot topic of conversation in the paddock. However, Redding himself has spoken of his surprise at learning of the news when it dropped.
“It was quite a surprise to me, as it was for everybody,” he told the official WorldSBK website. “I don’t know what he can bring, it is quite a mystery to me when I look at the riding style he has. Time will tell.”
After some initial difficulties adapting to the inline-four package, Redding achieved solid results on the BMW M 1000 RR in 2022, leading to three podiums. However, his form has fluctuated in 2023, leading to a triple zero score last time out at Catalunya.
Despite this, Redding says he is committed to seeing the BMW project through and wants to continue with the team.
“Not too much I can say, I have until 15th July to make my decision to stay with BWM or not. We are working as hard with BMW as we can to make the bike the best as possible, so we will see now the dust is settling from all the attention on Toprak, what is going on, it was a bit of a shock to everybody, so we will see in a bit of time.
“We are looking around but our priority is to stay with BMW, it has been a hard two years for me, we are working hard but it’s not where I want to be.”
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