Get unlimited access
You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month.
Aprilia MotoGP rider Scott Redding is weighing up an offer to stay on in a test role next year.
Redding will lose his race seat to Andrea Iannone next year and has no obvious opportunities to continue in MotoGP full-time.
Asked by Autosport about reports Aprilia had offered him a 2019 test role, Redding confirmed it was possible.
“I have to consider it,” Redding said. “As it stands, I have no job next year anywhere, so I have to consider all the options I can get.
“To be test rider is not really something I want to do. It’s not my passion. I’m 25, I want to race, I want to win.
“But if my career comes to that I have to accept it, work with Aprilia to make the best package for them.
“Maybe to be test rider with some wildcards, then OK.”
Asked by Autosport whether this could be a potential route to a full-time MotoGP return in the future, Redding said: “How many test riders have come back racing, even with good results?
“[Ducati tester Michele] Pirro, [KTM tester Mika] Kallio, those guys have experience and have got good results. They won’t come back [full-time].
“That’s my only scare. Maybe I’m test rider for 10 years, and I can set myself up for life. Or maybe I can race something and be test rider.”
After finding out he would lose his MotoGP ride, Redding spoke of Moto2 and World Superbikes as potential 2019 destination.
He said at Assen on Friday that a top-line WSBK seat would be preferable to MotoGP testing, but doubted he would find one.
“All the good stuff, that can fight for championships, is more or less a done deal,” Redding admitted.
“Do I want to go to WSBK with a satellite team? Maybe it will be good.
“But I’ve done ‘maybe’ most of my life, and most of the time it’s ‘maybe not’.
“I need to think about budget, in future I want to have a family that I have to support.
“I don’t race for the money but in the end it’s my job.”
Team manager Romano Albesiano said Aprilia, which currently has Italian Superbike rider Matteo Baiocco as its MotoGP tester, was planning a “more performance, high-level test team” for 2019.
Aleix Espargaro, who is signed to Aprilia through 2020, said keeping Redding as tester would be “unbelievably good” news.
“I have been pushing Romano a lot to have a strong third rider, because with the calendar we cannot do many tests, because we are not machines,” Espargaro said.
“As we saw with Ducati and also [Sylvain] Guintoli at Suzuki, who is doing a great job, also Stefan Bradl went to Honda… all the manufacturers have really fast test riders, and we don’t have anyone.
“If Scott stays with us as a test rider, it’s a really good move for Aprilia and he will help us a lot.”