Scott Redding excited about MotoGP switch in 2014

Scott Redding has spoken of his excitement at the prospect of racing Valentino Rossi, Marc Marquez and Cal Crutchlow in next year’s MotoGP world championship.

The British rider’s switch to ride a new production Honda RC213V for the Italian-based Gresini squad is likely to be announced during his crucial home round at Silverstone this weekend.

MCN understands the deal could be announced today, with the Gloucestershire rider clinching a two-year deal with Fausto Gresini’s squad, which is expected to see Redding secure a move to a factory prototype RC213V in 2015.

Talks with Gresini were first revealed by MCN in mid-June and having agreed a deal to buy one new production bike off HRC for next season, Gresini made highly rated Redding his number one target once negotiations commenced in Mugello.

The 20-year-old was also linked with a switch to Ducati, with his current Marc VDS Racing Moto2 squad seriously looking at one stage to move to MotoGP with the young Briton.

In an exclusive interview with MCN in the build up to this weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Redding said: “I am really excited to go to MotoGP and have all that power and I shouldn’t have a weight issue.

“That will be the main thing and if I can eliminate this it should make my races so much easier. It will be good to race against those guys. I’d love to race Valentino and racing Marc again will be cool.

“And then there’s Bradley, Cal and Lorenzo and being in there with those guys is something I have always wanted to do. But just to have a bike with some horsepower will be insane.”

Although the production Honda won’t be the full blown prototype version campaigned by the likes of Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl, in a surprise boost, double MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner will help development of the production racer in tests to take place in Japan.

The fact that a rider with the speed and skill of Stoner will be giving his input into the production bike is a boost for Redding added: “Seeing that Stoner is going to be testing the bike is really good and I heard the bike is pretty good.

“If Honda want to win they tend to win, so I just got to put all my effort into the production bike to do the same.”

Redding currently leads the Moto2 world championship by 21-points over Spanish Pol Espargaro heading into his crunch home race at Silverstone this weekend.