Redding: ‘Would be nice to make some steps next year, semi-pleased’ with 2022
Redding rounded out his 2022 WorldSBK season by finishing sixth in Race 2 at Phillip Island which was enough to move BMW ahead of Honda in the Manufacturers’ standings.
Redding’s first season with BMW got off to a dreadful start in Aragon as he scored just one point, however, significant improvements were made as the season went on which led to him even challenging the dominant trio of Alvaro Bautista, Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea in Most.
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The second half of the year saw BMW struggle more than expected, but Redding was relatively pleased with the progress made despite wanting to challenge for race wins which did not happen.
Speaking after the season-finale, Redding said: "The progression until the mid-season was kind of how I expected, getting closer and closer to the front and getting on the podium.
"I expected to stay there more, but as we got to hotter tracks with longer corners, our biggest problem was exaggerated and we struggled quite a lot.
"But in Indonesia I had a couple of good races, and considering the conditions here I can go home reasonably happy with the situation. I’m semi-pleased, obviously I want a lot more, but it was ok.
"It would be nice if we can make some steps for next year because I want to challenge for more podiums and try and win races again."
Like Bautista, Redding made a bold move during last weekend’s Superpole Race to fit dry tyres on a slightly damp circuit, albeit he made his decision after the formation lap as opposed to on the grid like the Ducati rider.
However, Redding reverted back to Saturday’s Race 1 as the turning point to his weekend after finding performance on slick tyres with a wet setting that left him confused.
"Something that was quite weird for us on Saturday, when I came in and put the slick tyres on in the flag-to-flag, I had the rain setting on the bike and when I went out in the flag-to-flag, I said that’s the best the bike’s felt all year," added Redding.
"There was a lot of confusion. Lap times I’m not so sure about but feeling, especially here, it turned the bike around.
"I had fun. For four laps, it was the first time during the weekend I enjoyed it. We need to understand what’s going on. In the rain, I had zero grip and in the dry I had zero grip.
"But with the rain setting in the dry, I was getting grip. I started to realise I was using a lot of tyre, to stay there and the bike’s moving a bit, but I had fun; the bike was working.
"By mistake, we came across something that was quite interesting that we can explore for the future."
