Marc Marquez feels sorry for Scott Redding: the backstory revealed by the BSB rider

The British rider has revisited the fewer opportunities he had in his career compared to Marquez and others: could he have done more?

Scott Redding now competes full-time in BSB and would love to win a second British title, but he no longer races by putting pressure on himself. In 2019 he won on his debut in the British Superbike Championship, where he landed after some difficult years in MotoGP and which he then left to test himself in WorldSBK. Today he sits second in the standings with 301 points, 47 fewer than leader Kyle Ryde, the reigning champion and also riding a Ducati Panigale V4 R. With four rounds of the 2026 calendar still to go, the chance to be crowned champion is alive.

In a long interview given to the podcast SCRUFF BAGS by HMY, the English rider retraced his career a bit and recalled that at the beginning he could even beat a phenomenon like Marc Marquez, who then had a decidedly better path thanks to his immense talent and more: "I grew up racing with Marquez and, believe it or not, I beat him most of the time. He became a better rider and he had different opportunities. The passport has always been a big talking point and it certainly played a role, but the biggest part was the money and the support that Marquez had and Redding didn’t. He was backed by Repsol Red Bull. When he moved up to Moto2 he had his own team and staff, who then followed him into MotoGP. The difference is that he had a lot of funding and always the best equipment."

Redding believes that with greater financial backing than he had in his career, he probably would have achieved better results: "I think so. It’s not just about the bike, but also about the people you have around you. I was the kid who was probably doing things he shouldn’t have been doing, but I was having fun. And maybe that was exactly the difference: I was living my normal life in a world where you can’t do that, yet I had always been told not to be different. I probably should have been, and maybe other doors would have opened."

The current Hager PBM Racing Team rider is convinced that more effort is needed in Great Britain to support local riders, especially those who prove to be talented: "The passport doesn’t explain everything; it’s an excuse not to do more for British riders. Why don’t British companies think ‘We have one of the best British riders in the world, he won the British GP and could have a bright future, let’s put him in the Red Bull Ajo factory team’? That’s the problem. Marc had Red Bull and Repsol. In the end you make do with what’s left and you’re expected to work miracles, but you can’t. I managed for a while, then it was over."

Scott also had the chance to recall an episode when he raced the Marc VDS team’s Honda MotoGP bike in 2015: "That Honda was the toughest Marc had ridden. He told me he felt sorry for me, because after three Grands Prix they went back to the old bike, while I was stuck with the same one, and he said he knew what I was dealing with. Before that he couldn’t even get on the podium, then they changed the frame and at the next GP both he and Dani Pedrosa were up there. It was painful for me: I knew I wouldn’t win, but I could have been competitive. I decided to leave the team, I couldn’t do another year like that, without the chance to show my potential. It hurt."

Marquez, then a rider for the Repsol Honda team, was very honest in telling Redding what the situation was. The two have a good relationship and the British rider acknowledges the Spaniard’s value, regardless of the discussions about the different support they had in their careers: the talent of the nine-time world champion and the merit for what he has won are not in question.

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