Aprilia would like to retain the services of Scott Redding in 2019, albeit as its MotoGP test ꦰrider, according to the factory's technical chief Romano Albesiano.

The Italian told ltxcn.top he was “so sorry” to replace the Englishman with Andrea Iannone from next year after a difficult opening to t💝he year, but talked up Redding’s ‘approach’ and ‘speed’ as reasons behind his desire to continue their working relationship.

Redding has endured🐻 a difficult opening seven races, claiming just three point-scoring finishes, with a pair of twelfth places in Argentina and Barcelona the strongest of those.

The chance to sign I🔴annone, said Albesiano, was “an opportunity” that “we had to take”. The Italian will 💮join Aleix Espargaro in the Noale factory team for 2019 and ’20.

“We are actually offering [Redding] a position as a test rider for next year in case he is interested because we really like the way he works, the approach he has and the speed he has,” Albesiano told ltxcn.top. “We know he’s a fast rider.

“For us it would be very, very nice to have him as a test rider because we need to make a very important step in the test tea🦋m. So this is something that we’re offering him, also to confirm his p🀅recision. When we had the opportunity to have Iannone, we had to do it.

“I think Sam [Lowes] is probably as a rookie no🧔t a reference. Scott is a𒐪 reference. For sure he’s a reference. Sure, he’s struggling. It’s very useful for us to understand the weak points of our bike that are not so clear.

“Comparing the weak point of our bike to his bike of last year, it’s not very obvious what is better or what is worse. Anyway, we know we have 🌊some characteristics that we can improve. At this test we are understanding something very important for the future.”

At the Grand Prix of Catalunya, Redding revealed 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:he was considering options in💜 World Superbike, as well as Moꦍto2, and feels the former may be a bette🀅r long-term option for his career prospects.

Asked if Iannone was an obvious choice once he confirmed he would not be continuing with Suzuki beyond this year, Albesiano answered, “Obvious? It🍨 was an opportunity that we grabbed.

“Sure, there are no doubts about the spe🍷🌄ed of this guy. Of course, he’s Italian. For an Italian team this is always something – not better, but for marketing reasons also it’s a good point. I’m so sorry we had to stop the relationship with Scott so early in the season. We understand if he’s unhappy because of this but this is the market.

“We c✨annot wait to September to choose the rider, otherwise maybe I have to ride and you ride with me! Maybe you are fast, I don’t know. So this is how it works.”

Was the fact Iannone can bring experience and information from two MotoGP race winning♛ bikes another factor in his signing?

“Absolutely,” he said. “We need to have some continuous information. Being, still, in the growing phase, we need information to understa🍌nd how the bike works – the good points and the bad points. For us it’s very important.”