BMW places Scott Redding in 2024 World Superbike Championship with Bonovo team: why Redding will be a challenge for Michael Galinski’s team
Just before the recent WSBK weekend in Aragon (Spain), BMW announced the final rider line-up for the 2024 World Superbike Championship. Next year, Toprak Razgatlioglu will form the BMW factory team together with Michael van der Mark. In the Bonovo team, Garrett Gerloff will contest his second season and will have a new team-mate in Scott Redding. Loris Baz loses his place.
But how should Redding’s move to the Bonovo team be classified? For weeks the Briton has caused confusion with cryptic statements about his future and announced announcements.
The fact is that Redding will cede the role of leader within BMW to former world champion Toprak Razgatlioglu. BMW dug deep into their pockets to sign Razgatlioglu and will most likely base their development on the Turkish rider’s statements. This could have a negative effect on Redding’s motivation. But so far it didn’t look like Redding had a significant influence on the development of the M1000RR anyway.
What a great opportunity there is for Scott Redding
An opportunity can be seen in the new environment. In the factory team, Redding was under a lot of pressure to succeed. At times, Redding and BMW fell very far short of the goals they were aiming for. Next year Razgatlioglu will be in focus and Redding can ride more freely.
In addition, the very familiar environment at Bonovo should be a great opportunity for Redding, who appears quite tough on the outside, but is more sensitive on the inside than the rowdy appearance suggests at first glance. Team manager Michael Galinski was an active pro himself for years and knows what makes riders tick.
If Galinski succeeds in giving Redding the necessary backing, then the Grand Prix winner’s form curve can point upwards again next year. Garrett Gerloff’s recent performances confirm how well the team is working.
Galinksi welcomes Redding: “We are very happy that he is joining our team. I hope we can give him the support he needs. We are a very familiar team. That’s good for him, I think. I hope he can show his full potential with our team.”
“With Garrett, we have been able to improve a lot recently. It is important for us that the rider feels very comfortable in the team. The riders have enough pressure as it is. We want to strengthen the riders’ backs so that they can show their full potential,” Galinski confirms to ‘WorldSBK.com’ the Bonovo team’s strategy.
Scott Redding continues to believe in the BMW project
After two successful years with Ducati, Redding switched to BMW at the end of 2021 and wanted to fight for victories with the Munich-based company. Apart from a few podium finishes, however, Redding has yet to produce much in the way of results at BMW.
“I believe in the project. Something is happening, but it took time,” he notes, looking optimistically to the future. “I think we’ll see greater progress next year.”
“I’m looking forward to working with the Bonovo team. There are great people there, the atmosphere in the team is great. I’m not worried about that. I’m really happy because at the moment it’s difficult for any rider to compete because there are so many new riders pushing up,” Redding is aware of the situation in the World Superbike Championship.