EXCLUSIVE: Toprak Razgatlioglu crew chief reveals Turkish star’s riding secrets

Each rider has their own unique riding style, although the extent to which one rider’s technique differs from another’s is usually hard to spot from trackside or while watching on TV; but when it comes to two-times WorldSBK Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu there is little left to the imagination.

Approaching a corner with one wheel disconnected from the surface for several tens of metres would ordinarily see the rider aboard the out-of-shape motorcycle heading for the run-off, but with Razgatlioglu it’s a part of his particular way of finding lap time.

Such a style points to talent and bike control, which ordinarily would imply a degree of insignificance when it comes to bike setup, but, at least in the case of Razgatlioglu, and his exceptionally unique style, that’s not necessarily true, as explained by his crew chief Phil Marron in an exclusive interview with Crash.net.

“I wouldn’t say it’s more ‘difficult’ to set the bike up, but it’s more specific to him,” said Marron, who has worked with Razgatlioglu since 2019.

“He’s very particular in what he wants the bike to do and how he wants it to feel, especially on corner entry we can see how amazing and how spectacular that looks.”

Razgatlioglu’s style on corner entry looks extremely stressful on the front end of the bike, but Marron explained that it’s also the rear of the bike that Razgatlioglu needs to work in the correct way, particularly with engine braking, in order to ride as he wants.

“His feeling for the front tyre is on another level — it’s sliding and locking, but it’s under control,” he said.

“What he does really well is he’s modulating the front brake — okay, the first brake is really aggressive, but everything after that is super-controlled.

“He’s setting the rear wheel down again — so the rear is in the air, he sets it down and then he’s playing with the front brake to control how much he sets the rear on the floor, how much rear load there is; and he’s shifting between drag and lock from the rear tyre to help the bike decelerate, along with the electronics.”

It’s the moment when the rear tyre returns to the asphalt that was one of the points to improve on when Razgatlioglu first rode the M1000RR back in December 2023, and Marron points to the Turkish rider’s willingness to ride repeatedly on the limit as one of the factors that allowed the BMW engineers to get the bike working in a way that Razgatlioglu liked in this area.

“The first time he rode the BMW it didn’t let him do that [bring the rear tyre down smoothly],” Marron said.

“It was quite active, quite aggressive.

“Normally, when a rider sets the rear down, it snaps sideways and they go through the gravel, they don’t want to ever do that again, so they don’t go anywhere near as aggressive as that.

“We’re fortunate that Toprak can ride to that limit. It gives us a chance to see on the electronics how it needs to be refined; the guys work really hard to try to improve it, [and] he rides to the maximum again.

“So, he just keeps pushing the envelope, so the guys just keep following with the setting. So, it’s impressive what he can do, and then the electronic engineers can work to try to complement what he’s after.

“But the fact that he can do it repeatedly, more extreme than anyone else, it gives them a clear picture of what’s going to happen, how to try to refine it.”

Once the rear tyre is back on the floor, Razgatlioglu’s demands on the electronics and on the engine brake become strengthened.

“Then, in the last metres, he wants all the help he can get from the electronics to shut the bike down and make the apex,” Marrons explained.

“But the fact that he can do all this with incredible lean angle and the rear in the air is pretty spectacular. It’s incredible.”

Marron added: “On the Yamaha, we worked quite a lot on it. It really highlighted how necessary it was for him. On the BMW, we have a good level of adjustability there, and it complements his style.

“But it’s high on the list of the key points that we have to address and iron out, and get him in the window quite early in the weekend — it’s one of the important areas.

“If the bike’s not stopping in the last metres, that’s when you hold the front brake for longer, you might miss the apex, you lean a bit more, you open the gas with more lean angle, and then they start to complain about the rear grip.

“So if we can get the bike stopped, everything else is a bit easier to manage. But, it’s high on his list.

“Even when he’s not happy with it, he can still ride to a very high level. It’s one of the things that he talks about the most, but even when it’s not ready he can still ride the bike quite fast, so it’s not his Achilles’ Heel for sure, but it’s one of his hot topics.”

Marron added that the BMW M1000RR gives more potential for adjustments to be made to the engine brake setting compared to the Yamaha R1 Razgatlioglu rode from 2020–2023.

“Compared to the Yamaha we have more adjustability,” Marron said, but “compared to the Kawasaki I wouldn’t say more or less, we’re in a similar range.

“We use Motec data analysis software, and we use a Bosch ECU with BMW software for the engine management.

“The team of guys working on it are very fast to react, very quick to react and respond and that’s probably the more important point than what we have at our disposal, it’s that the guys are quick to react and quick to respond, they’re very eager to try and help and they understood quite quickie Toprak’s requests and were able to deliver quite efficiently on that.”

Razgatlioglu’s demeanour is rarely animated during a weekend when he’s speaking to media, or even while on the bike.

But there have been exceptions, most notably the Portuguese Round at Portimao in 2023, where Razgatlioglu was twice beaten to the line by Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista who was able to carry more speed from the exit of the corner.

In Race 2, Razgatlioglu smashed the screen of his Yamaha R1, such was his frustration at being beaten in such a manner; and white Marron admits that Razgatlioglu can become animated in the pit box during a weekend if things on the bike need fixing, rarely is the Turkish rider in the kind of mood he felt in the Algarve last year.

“During the session he can be quite animated as well, when he has issues — for example, with a tyre he doesn’t like, or a problem that we’ve tried to fix,” Marron said.

“Generally speaking, he’s calm and relaxed, but when he doesn’t have the bike helping him ride how he wants to ride he can be quite animated. But, not as animated, or not as deflated, as we saw him in Portimao in 2023.

“[In] Race 2, he rode the full race like it was 20 qualifying laps, and he got beaten to the line by Alvaro [Bautista], and that really detuned him. His emotions came out, and everybody saw how much he was trying, so it was nothing to be ashamed of there, he rode well and had his heart on his sleeve afterwards.

“In the box, he’s calm. We try to work calm, and keep all the guys calm. So, it keeps everything relaxed and settled, that’s generally how we try to keep it.”

Although the specificity of Razgatlioglu’s style and what that style means he desires from the bike are demanding, Marron said that his ability to put up with weak points of a package means he is “the best of both worlds”.

“If we do have issues with the bike, if we do have problems that we didn’t manage to iron out over the weekend, he accepts that when it’s time to go racing,” he said.

“He’s like ‘Okay, this is my bike, I just have to ride it’. He gets on and he tries his best to ride around whatever other issues he may be having.

“So, we’re fortunate that we’ve got the best of both worlds: we’ve got a rider that can do incredible things on the bike; we try to help him with the setting to do those incredible things; and then he can ride around the rest, the shortcomings of the package. So, it’s impressive.”