Scott Redding says early unreliability hurt performance during 2016
Pramac Ducati rider Scott Redding says early-season unreliability set back learning his new-for-2016 bike, which was still hurting him by the end of the MotoGP campaign
Having spent his first two seasons in the premier class on Honda machinery, Redding moved to the satellite Ducati squad in 2016, as the series also switched to Michelin tyres.
His only three retirements of the season came in the first six races, with two mechanical failures - headlined by an engine fault when he was set to finish on the podium in Argentina - and the other at Jerez related to tyre issues.
The Briton cited the front-tyre locking and then drive problems he endured during the Valencia finale as symptomatic of how that affected his year.
"Overall the season for me, I am happy and I'm not happy," he said.
"People forget the beginning of the season, how much shit I had and not finishing races.
"The problem with that is that you don't gain data from the race.
"The problem I had [at Valencia] could've been fixed five races earlier.
"But because I was doing five or six laps, then with something happening, we didn't get that experience or data."
Redding qualified on the front row of the grid for the first time and claimed his second MotoGP podium during the wet Assen weekend, then finished fourth in the drying German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring.
The 23-year-old, though, pointed to the Austrian Grand Prix as a standout performance, having qualified and finished eighth.
"Red Bull Ring was quite a good race," he said.
"I was kind of in trouble with the tyre but I managed to override it, and felt quite good.
"In the mixed-condition races you don't learn anything from the full race distance because you're pissing about with the wets, dries in between.
"Austria was the first time I said, 'guys, that was a good race, I've learned something from it'.
"This season was a long season. I'm not going to walk away with my head down, I've got another season in MotoGP next year, a better bike than this year.
"In the end it's all good."
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