Scott Redding is “happy to start racing” despite his limited track time at the Jerez World Superbike pre-season test as he gears up for his rookie season in the championship.

The 2019 British Superbike champion steps up to the Aruba.it Racing Ducati squad in World Superbikes this season, replacing the Honda-bound Alvaro Bautista, and brings with him crew chief Giovanni Crupi who he worked with at Be Wiser PBM Ducati.

With a year of experience on the Ducati V4 R Panigale in BSB-specification, Redding is confident of making a smooth transition to WorldSBK and despite being restrained to 90 laps across the two-day Jerez test he feels ready for the 2020 campaign with two pre-season tests to come at Portimao and Phillip Island.

“I feel ready. I felt ready from the beginning when I got on the bike and I felt good,” Redding said. “It is the same bike, same crew chief and different team around me but they are very strong.

“I just feel good and I want to tweak a few little things, just minor things that I think we can improve then I think we are in a good way to start the season, I think that is important to be confident and to be not too far in the rain or in the dry. I am happy to start racing.”

With Aruba.it Racing Ducati joining the bulk of the WorldSBK paddock at Portimao for another two-day test (February 26-27), Redding is eager to work on his rear tyre life and performance with the 2020 Pirellis equipped with factory-specification electronics – having used BSB’s single spec Motec electronics last year.

“It would be nice to have two dry days to work and improve on a couple of things,” he explained. “One of them is rear grip and at Portimao I think it is a place we can test that.

“I am looking forward to that and seeing how the bike works at another track. We have ridden this bike at Aragon, Valencia and Jerez which are all tracks that are quite smooth and flat, except Aragon as it has quite a bit of elevation, but we haven’t been to a track that has on and off camber corners, bumps, uphill and downhill.

“It’ll also be like a new track for me as I only tested there last year with BSB so it is a fresh circuit for me.”

While none of the riders at the Jerez test concentrated on outright single lap pace, largely due to the wet conditions, Redding’s best lap at the Spanish circuit this week of 1m 41.407s put him 0.424s off timesheet-topper and reigning World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea on the Kawasaki.