Toprak Razgatlioglu moves to BMW
Gordon Ritchie | May 22, 2023
The second major ‘silly season’ WorldSBK news story thus far is by the biggest, with 2021 World Champion—and one of the truly great talents of WorldSBK racing—Toprak Razgatlioglu, leaving Yamaha at the end of the season to join BMW.
A stunning move in many ways, this possibility has been spoken of inside the WorldSBK paddock of late. Most were convinced, however, that he would stay in his settled Pata Yamaha Prometeon team rather than take what appears a risker venture towards the fast but fickle BMW M 1000 RR. But even Razgatlioglu has been toiling for little reward on the Yamaha this season.
Toprak Razgatlioglu will take the biggest gamble of his racing career in 2024 when he switches to BMW.
The reality of WorldSBK in 2023 is that the combination of Alvaro Bautista and his Aruba Racing Ducati V4 R has proved unbeatable to all except Mandalika sprint race winner Razgatlioglu. At all four tracks and in all conditions.
With Bautista back in harness for the official Ducati team for at least one more year, and there appearing to be no new and special Yamaha base machine on the horizon for Razgatlioglu, moving manufacturers next year is logical in at least one regard.
The WorldSBK BMW is fast but has a reputation of being difficult to set-up. With such a unique riding style, maybe Razgatlioglu feels the problems other riders have been having may not affect him, simply as his on-track approach is so different from all theirs?
Will Redding be out of a job now that Toprak is on his way? Or will it be teammate Michael van der Mark?
BMW management, with a repeatedly injured and truly luckless Michael van der Mark alongside a clearly disgruntled Scott Redding in the official BMW Motorrad team, must see taking one of WorldSBK’s ‘Big Three’ super-talents into the fold as the single biggest performance upgrade they can apply next year. Although we presume they must have fronted up some major budget to lure him away.
The big question for all is will Razgatlioglu be able to turn machine potential into podium metal on a regular basis? It looks like essential viewing, even from this far out.
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