Scott Redding eager to assess new Honda at full strength

Scott Redding says he can’t wait to get his first opportunity to evaluate the new Gresini Honda RCV1000R production bike in peak physical condition during the first MotoGP test of 2014 in Malaysia next week.

Redding’s debut on the new bike in Valencia last November was a torrid affair, as he struggled to lap close to a competitve pace with a left wrist injury he picked up during the Phillip Island Moto2 round in Australia.

The 21-year-old has embarked on an intense winter training regime and will arrive in Kuala Lumpur for the test that starts next Tuesday at full strength.

Speaking to MCN, the 2013 Moto2 runner-up said: “I am looking forward to the test next week big time. At the Valencia test I ended up doing more laps than I planned with the wrist but I couldn’t do more and it was a bit frustrating. But now I am fully fit and I have been riding a lot of moto cross, so I just want to get out to Malaysia and get on that dragon and give it some.”

With hours of moto cross training under his belt during the off-season, Redding reckons the wrist is close to full strength and he added: “It probably 98% and it feels really strong. I have lost about 10% flexibility but it doesn’t affect me at all.

I’ve been doing 20 minutes flatout on a moto cross bike, so there is no reason why I can’t do race distance on a MotoGP bike.”

Asked when he could expect to regain full mobility in the wrist, Redding said: “I am not too sure. It might come back once I get the plate out but it doesn’t really bother me. I’ve had to change a few things like doing push-ups on my knuckles. It makes it harder.”

Redding says he has trained harder than ever in the winter to make sure he is as prepared as possible for the brutal challenge of racing a 250bhp MotoGP bike.

He has been working with personal trainer Paul Loughran and he said: “Preparation has been massive because if you don’t prepare in the right way then you are preparing to fail. And that’s not something I want to do. I don’t want to be left on the back foot because I didn’t train hard enough and push myself. When you see people like (Jorge) Lorenzo, he is like a machine because he always wants to be better and I am the same. I’ve hooked up with Paul the last few weeks and stepped my game up. And I am enjoying it because I am trying to achieve something. It has been tough because most days I wake up hurting but it will be worth it. After Valencia I put quite a bit of weight on after losing the championship through injury. With the injury I couldn’t really train so I put some weight on. I can’t see to get back down to the weight I was before. I’m about 2kg heavier than I was last year but it is weird because when I look at myself in the mirror I think I look skinnier that I did before. I would still like to lose a little bit of weight because it will help but I’d rather be fit and strong at the end of the race and be one of the guys coming through at the end. And that’s what I’ve been working on.”