Superbike world champion Toprak Razgatlioglu followed the MotoGP finale in Valencia and familiarized himself with the procedures in the pits of Yamaha test rider Augusto Fernandez. His second career begins on Tuesday.
When Toprak Razgatlioglu arrived in Valencia on Friday evening, those responsible at Yamaha first explained to him how he should behave in his public image. The background is that the Turk still has a BMW contract and certain obligations.
There is excellent mutual understanding between BMW and his future employer Yamaha: Toprak has already completed a shakedown with the M1 in Aragon and will meet his next year’s MotoGP competition for the first time on Tuesday, November 18th at the IRTA tests in Valencia.
In return, Yamaha has given Miguel Oliveira permission to complete his first superbike test with BMW in Jerez in the last week of November. Both riders will ride in neutral leather and will not comment on their new bikes.
Razgatlioglu followed the season finale in Valencia closely and spent a lot of time in the pits of Yamaha test rider Augusto Fernandez, who made another guest start with a wildcard. There the three-time Superbike champion also met test rider and ambassador Andrea Dovizioso. In the Pramac box, Toprak only said hello briefly – Oliveira shouldn’t have his successor in front of him all weekend.
An era ends for Yamaha after this weekend: the in-line four-cylinder will be put in the corner, and from Tuesday only the V4 engine, which is in the testing phase and is scheduled for 2026, will be used.
“We have some parts with us,” Yamaha’s MotoGP boss Paolo Pavesio gave SPEEDWEEK.com an outlook on the Tuesday test. «We have new aerodynamic parts and a development chassis in one of Augusto’s motorcycles. This is a possible basis for our direction in the winter, we still have to decide.”
The Italian continues: “As far as our engine is concerned, the requirement is clear: we need more power, which we can also see in test bench tests. At our power level, we’re not just talking about one, two or five horsepower – we’ve already found a few more and need to find more. This becomes obvious when you look at the top speed values. What’s interesting is how much the stronger acceleration contributes to a better lap time despite the lack of power. What we have is more grip; We have to get better in the corners. This is one of the strengths of the current M1 that we don’t want to lose completely. But we also know that we have to accept compromises in this regard. If that weren’t the case, we would build a perfect motorcycle.”
By the way: Razgatlioglu will – as revealed by SPEEDWEEK.com – compete in MotoGP with start number 7.
