Garrett Gerloff reveals the “biggest thing” in recent WorldSBK form upturn

A third place for Garrett Gerloff in WorldSBK Race 2 at Magny-Cours was his first in the championship since 2022, and his first as a BMW rider.

Although there was a multi-rider battle stretching back to ninth place over third place for much of the race, Gerloff was able to eventually establish himself in third place in the final stages of the race.

It was the kind of performance that Gerloff was expecting from the beginning of the season.

“This year I honestly thought we were going to start a lot stronger and have more podiums, at least one by now but this year has been a struggle since the beginning and we’re finally figuring things out,” Gerloff, who will move to the Puccetti Kawasaki team in 2025, told WorldSBK.com.

“We’ve all had our heads down and we’ve all been focussed. To finally have it all pay off for the team, it's a big relief, the emotions are high for everybody.”

A big part of Gerloff’s improvement in recent races, especially in France, has been the discovery of a good base setup on the M1000 RR, he said.

“I think the biggest thing is we’ve just found a set-up that feels like it is working.

“It wasn’t perfect, but we just kept riding. It’s helped me a lot to predict the bike more and to ride in front of the bike, that’s helped me to be more consistent.

“We’re having to work with things that are completely different to last year so we’ve been through a metamorphosis, working through a bunch of stuff to get where we are now. But we’ve found something good and I feel like we’re here now, for the most part.”

Gerloff also had a word for his BMW stablemate Toprak Razgatlioglu, who still leads the championship by 55 points despite being unable to race in Magny-Cours after suffering a collapsed lung in an FP2 crash on Friday afternoon.

“I just want to say I wish the speediest recovery to Toprak [Razgatlioglu],” Gerloff said. “It’s a shame to not have him out there and for sure it would have been a lot harder to get on the podium if he was here, but I was able to get it done.”