Sykes predicts ‘tall order’ for Redding in Ducati to BMW WorldSBK switch

Tom Sykes says Scott Redding faces a ‘tall order’ to mirror the form he enjoyed with Ducati when he lines up with BMW for the 2022 WorldSBK Championship.

The 2013 WorldSBK Champion was ousted from the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team at the end of the 2021 season in favour of the incoming Redding, who joins Michael van der Mark in the German squad after two seasons spent on the factory Aruba.it Ducati Panigale V4 R.

Those two seasons saw 2019 BSB champion Redding establish himself as a title contender and twelve-time race winner, but his move to BMW and the unfamiliar inline-four M 1000 RR poses a fresh challenge on a bike that has managed just a single win and a handful of podiums in recent campaigns..

Having had the chance to sample the works Ducati in a private test at Misano prior to his announcement of joining the manufacturer as part of Paul Bird Motorsport’s British Superbike line-up for 2022, the Yorkshireman expects Redding will be up against it given the disparity in the bikes.

“The ingredients are there if it all gets put together but after riding the works Ducati in Misano I think, however good he is, it’ll be a tall order,” he told Bikesportnews in an interview.

Sykes also divulged more about the circumstances which led to his exit from BMW, an outcome he intimated at the time he hadn’t anticipated and was disappointed he wasn’t given more notice to source another competitive ride.

“To cut a very long story short and, rightly or wrongly, in my opinion and a lot of others, I got information that I didn’t have the option of staying in World Superbikes in the team that I was with. 

“So, rather like footballer, I was being put in the transfer window. I missed that and later discovered that if I’d been given the respect of knowing much earlier there were two factory teams who would have enjoyed my services .

“But having said that, and accepting that things happen in life, I remembered what a very, very wise man once said to me, ‘It’s not how you get in the shit it’s how you get out of it that counts.

“It’s no secret there are two individuals who will not be on my Christmas card list. I am not naming them because respect goes a long way in this life. I have no problem with BMW, with the budgets and resources they have everything in place to win races in the World Championship.”