Scott Redding says he has been left in a “sticky situation” regarding his future plans due to the delay in Aprilia informing him he would not be racing in MotoGP with the team in 2019.
The Briton joined the factory Aprilia squad from Pramac Ducati, but a poor start to the season as he adapted to the RS-GP has resulted in the Italian marque dropping him for next year in favour of outgoing Suzuki man Andrea Iannone.
Redding says Aprilia knew “months before” announcing Iannone that it would sign the Italian, and admits he is now in a “sticky situation” as a result in securing a ride for next year.
With almost all seats in MotoGP sewn up past 2018, and further options in Moto2 and World Superbikes scarce, Redding's most likely move is staying with Aprilia as a test rider, which has reportedly been offered to him.
“I have to consider every option at the moment, because they knew months before they were going to take Iannone,” Redding said in an interview with motogp.com.
“Here [MotoGP], Moto2, World Superbike, are almost all done [in terms of contract negotiations].
“So that's put me in a sticky situation at the moment because I don't have a lot of options to choose really from.
“I did lose a little bit of motivation when they first told me, but then I also lost a lot of pressure.
“I still need to push for results because I need to think of my future, it's just part of the job and I'm going to enjoy it till Valencia.”
Constant rider swapping not good for Aprilia
Iannone will be the seventh rider since 2015 to have moved to Aprilia, and Redding feels simply changing line-up “won't change how big the result is”, and says not even Marc Marquez could win on the RS-GP currently.
“The thing what's hardest the most is if they've judged me, say after, four races, which I think is not really fair on one side.
“They've employed me to develop the bike, so that's what I've tried to do. But on the backside they've wanted me to do results as well develop the bike in this short space of time.
“Would have been nice for them to give me more races to show myself. You could put Marquez on my bike, he's not going to win the race.
“For sure he will do better than me, but he's not going to win the race just by changing the rider.
“So they need to think about this, just changing the rider is not going to change how big the result is going to be.
“And in my opinion, a rider like Iannone, if it's not going well, there will be a lot of stress, a lot of friction, it's not going to come, there's going to be a lot of pressure.
“That's the gamble and the strategy they want to take, and we will see."
