Could Toprak Razgatlioglu make it in MotoGP?

The transition from World Superbikes to MotoGP is one that several riders have tried to make in the past, and one that motorcycle racing fans are desperate for Torpak Razgatlioglu to make at some point in the future.

Unfortunately, any move the current WorldSBK points leader makes won’t be especially soon, as he’s committed to continuing with BMW in the production series in 2025. After that, though, it’s wide open. But would it work?

Well, Razgatlioglu’s age is against him, because at the beginning of the 2026 season, which would be his debut year, he will be 29, meaning he’ll be 30 in year two. David Alonso, on the other hand, will turn 20 in April 2026.

A motorcycle sport becomes increasingly business-like, teams and factories not only want the most talented person they can get their hands on to ride their motorcycle, they also want the one with the most longevity to maximise the return on their investment. If Razgatlioglu signs at 30, you might get five years out of him, whereas — continuing with the previous example — you could get 15 years out of David Alonso.

But, assuming that Razgatlioglu eventually does make the move across, how would he fare? Would he be like Ben Spies and injure himself into retirement? Like Cal Crutchlow and become the outspoken top six guy who can grab the odd win and occasional podium? Or be like no one else in history and transition from dominating Superbikes to dominating MotoGP?

Really, none of those seem especially likely.

It’s hard to see Razgatlioglu — who has won the last 13 WorldSBK races in succession and currently leads the points in that championship by 92 — arriving in MotoGP and just being another guy, in the same anonymous way that Miguel Oliveira is sort of just another guy, or Raul Fernandez, or even Jack Miller.

Similarly, it’s hard to see him failing through injury, like Spies, or through a lack of competitiveness, like, say, James Toseland (Toseland’s best MotoGP result was sixth, which he achieved on nine occasions during his two-year MotoGP stay, and only three times in the second of those years: 2009).

Effectively, while it’s hard to see Razgatlioglu going to MotoGP and being so much better than Francesco Bagnaia, Jorge Martin, and Marc Marquez that they just can’t figure out what do, it’s equally hard to see him making the jump and not, at some point, becoming a guy who is a regular contender for victories.

This is primarily because he has, to borrow an American motocross-ism, the dog in him. He has a ridiculous thirst for victory, not only in races or championships, but in the record books.

Razgatlioglu’s journey to take the record for consecutive race wins in WorldSBK was not only completed for the potent combination of his talents and the BMW’s strengths, but also Razgatlioglu’s own intense desire to win as much as possible and in every possible regard.

In 2021, en route to his first and so far only WorldSBK title, Razgatlioglu made constant mention of how he wanted to do a ‘treble’ — win all three races in one race weekend. In 2022, after he won his first race of the season in the Misano Superpole Race, Razgatlioglu alluded to a dissatisfaction as he spoke of how he still needed to win in a full-distance race. 

In 2023, he was the only rider to be remotely close to challenging Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista on his missile of a nervous Panigale V4 R with a Yamaha R1 that six-times WorldSBK Champion Jonathan Rea has managed one podium on in 10 months on the bike.

Razgatlioglu’s determination is, seemingly, to leave people without the ability to question him, to achieve so much in such a variety of circumstances and against such a diversity of conditions that people like you or me could never say “yeah, but…” with regards to him.

Razgatlioglu’s aggressive style has often been cited as a reason that he couldn’t work in MotoGP, because his style would have to change too much to adapt to the Michelin tyres. Of course, the Pirelli tyres in WorldSBK are well known for offering much more support and sturdiness than the MotoGP Michelins. 

Plus, Razgatlioglu’s almost immediate adaptation from a big-bang, underpowered Yamaha R1 on Motec electronics to a conventionally-firing BMW M1000 RR with enough power to match a Panigale in the straights, and on in-house BMW electronics, is absolutely not proof that the guy is adaptable.

Assuming you detected the sarcasm (which is always risky to use both on the internet and in written media) in the above paragraph, you should be able to follow me to the conclusion that the adaptability of Razgatlioglu’s style is born from his desire to win, which led him from Yamaha to BMW in the first place. 

Sure, the basic characteristics are still the same: he brakes hard and late, he sits fairly centrally on the bike, and he doesn’t run a whole lot of corner speed; but he uses less rear brake now because the BMW’s engine brake is more effective than the Yamaha’s, and he stresses the rear tyre less because he rides in a more relaxed way which is enabled by the M1000 RR’s evidently higher performance ceiling compared to the R1.

“I don’t know at the moment if there is someone that can fight really with [Razgatlioglu] because, as I had a chance to look at him quite close yesterday, he was quite relaxed, but I was not,” said Danilo Petrucci about the 2021 WorldSBK Champion after battling with him in Race 1 at the Portuguese World Superbike round last weekend.

There’s no reason to assume that Razgatlioglu would be incapable of making the same kind of adjustments to his riding style that would allow him to become competitive in MotoGP — admittedly, a change in tyre brand, a change back to big bang, most likely to a V4, and to an aero-dominant formula would probably require larger and more significant adjustments; but it seems impossible to argue that the capacity for him to adapt is absent from his skillset.

Assuming, then, that Razgatlioglu has the talent and ability to make it in MotoGP, why couldn’t he? Ultimately, it comes down to who offers him a motorcycle. 

At the moment, if you put him on a Honda, would he do better than Marc Marquez last year? That seems unlikely. 

Similarly, the Yamaha is — despite their evident development — uncompetitive. Plus, KTM hasn’t won in the dry since 2021. Which leaves you with an overheating Aprilia, or — realistically — a year-old Ducati, which, again, would he do better than Marc Marquez on?

The motorcycle is incredibly important in MotoGP, more so than in Superbikes primarily because of the aerodynamics and ride height devices. 

Overcoming technical disadvantages in MotoGP are is clearly extremely difficult, even for the aforementioned Marquez, and therefore, you have to assume, even for a rider like Razgatlioglu, who has been overcoming technical disadvantages to mount WorldSBK title challenges for at least the last three seasons.

While Razgatlioglu has the ability, then, MotoGP’s importance on the technical package means that whether a spell in GPs is successful for Razgatlioglu might be somewhat out of his hands.