Redding on pay-to-ride, parts, pit safety…

UPDATE: Late on Thursday, Pramac Ducati confirmed that Jack Miller will join the team in place of Scott Redding for 2018.

Scott Redding isn't sure of many things regarding MotoGP 2018, but one thing is clear; he won't pay to ride.

The Englishman's Pramac Ducati seat is rumoured to be under serious threat from Jack Miller, but there is yet to be any official announcement, while Redding has in-turn been linked with Aprilia.

"At the moment there is no idea what I'm doing, if I'm honest," Redding said at the Red Bull Ring on Thursday. "I want to stay in the paddock here. I do believe I have the potential to show what I've got. I just need to find the right solution for me at the moment.

"It's not easy and there's not really many options. In fact, it's not 'options,' it's more 'one option'…"

Would you be willing to pay to stay in MotoGP?

"For a start, I have no money to pay. If you have to pay to ride, it's better you stay at home, in my opinion. I've said that from day one. I almost finished my career in 2009, to go on to 2010.

"I would never pay to put my life in danger, where I should be making money. I don’t come here for a hobby. This is for me to make a living, for my life, to survive on after.

"I know some guys have money and sponsors and for them they just enjoy to come racing and can spend 700,000 a year. But I wouldn’t even put 7,000 to ride a bike. For me it's a job, not a hobby… and I don't have any money to put in anyway."

Redding finished eighth in Austria last season, in a race dominated by factory Ducati riders Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso.

"I was strong here last year. I felt good. Really liked the circuit," he said. "The only downside is that everyone now has wings - covered up - on their bikes and we don’t. In a circuit like this it will make quite a big difference in my opinion. That's why they all came to this race with that ready.

"The [wings] are not on my bike now and I don’t think there will be anything. Maybe I can take last year's wings and just cover it with a bit of tape or something! It's a shame really because in the end that's all they are doing, putting wings back on the bike. Which is fine, but everyone needs it.

"So we have to see how it goes. But we will have a little bit of a disadvantage exiting turn one and turn three. We are going to suffer with that a little bit. But in the end I feel quite comfortable at this circuit. I feel the race in Brno was quite good and I feel here I can also improve."

Likewise, Redding doubts he will get a chance to try the new carbon fibre forks.

"When you are in a satellite team, with a satellite bike, when I arrive at Valencia she will be the same as when I got her twelve months before. That's the only downfall with being in a satellite team. There is no real development. Last year I got one fairing and two sets of winglets. And now we are not allowed winglets so there is no chance to get anything."

The Englishman's other pre-practice concern is that wet conditions could prove dangerous.

"If it's wet here I'm in with a good chance, the only concern for me is safety in the rain. As I said last year, if it rains here, it's dangerous. Going up to turn three, braking left side to go right and the wall is basically in your face. It's not really comfortable. There are a lot of places here where the front wheel is not really on the floor and we are leaning with no run-off. We'll have to see. I don't know how it is also with grip, with standing water. I think the forecast is a bit wet tomorrow and then to get better."

Turning to last Sunday's pit lane incident between Aleix Espargaro and Andrea Iannone, Redding was adamant that you can't expect riders to sit and wait before pulling out of their pit box; "you can make seconds in the pitlane and tenths on the circuit".

"Believe it or not I had that conversation in the riders' [safety commission], two-three races before. I said about making a 'double pit lane', with an in and an out, and the riders that comes first should have priority. Because if I'm leading the race and we come in, in a group of five, and the guy in fifth wants to turn in front of me, why should I have to stop?

"But they just didn't listen to me. So okay, if I was there and someone comes, I don’t look behind and I don't shut the gas. I want to win the race. So if two riders have that mentality, which I think most do, that [Espargaro and Iannone] was the outcome. What more do you expect? The rider is not going to slow down.

"They cannot expect the mechanic to say 'yes' or 'not' because the rider is going to let the clutch out. That's what I'd do. It's a race at the end of the day. I'm not going to lose eight tenths to a second waiting for someone to pass me.

"There is so much time to be made in the pitlane and riders are only just realising that. That's why now there are more crashes. Like when I did the triathlon, I made most of my time [in the change]. You can make seconds in the pitlane and you can make tenths on the circuit. It's easy seconds."

Redding felt imposing a minimum time for pit stop "could work I suppose" and that putting a Moto2 team between each MotoGP garage to space things out "would definitely help".