Alvaro Bautista: Toprak Razgatlioglu "deserving" of 2024 World Superbike title
“This kind of rider with this kind of character is always well deserving of the victories and the titles.”
Toprak Razgatlioglu and BMW “deserve” their 2024 World Superbike title, according to outgoing champion Alvaro Bautista.
Bautista’s defence of the title he won in 2022 and 2023 with Ducati was derailed at the end of last year when he suffered a back injury while testing Ducati’s MotoGP bike ahead of a wildcard in Malaysia.
The lightweight Spaniard also had to add ballast weight to his bike in 2024 as part of new balancing rules brought into combat Bautista’s dominance after he won 27 out of 36 races in 2023.
The combination of the injury and rule changes meant that Bautista went into the 2024 season under-prepared. Although he led the championship early on, once Razgatlioglu got into his stride in the middle of the season he began pulling away in the points, and Bautista ultimately ended up 170 points adrift of Razgatlioglu in the standings.
“He’s [Razgatlioglu] a really talented rider, and he works really hard,” Bautista told WorldSBK.com after Razgatlioglu clinched the 2024 title in Race 1 at Jerez last Saturday.
“He always tries to improve, to be better and better, faster, so this kind of rider with this kind of character is always well deserving of the victories and the titles.”
As well as Razgatlioglu’s personal attributes, his championship success was also thanks to the BMW team and the way Razgatlioglu has fit into the setup he joined only at the end of 2023.
“For sure, he and BMW did an incredible season,” Bautista said. “I don’t know if anybody expected him to fight [for the title].
“Sincerely, I expected him to fight for the victory and even for the title; maybe not the level he showed, because mid-season he was really strong and it was very difficult to beat them.
“Also, for sure, he had a bit of luck with the crash in Magny-Cours because he came back to ride again.
“For sure, they deserve it because they use all the ‘Superconcessions’ to make a really strong bike.
“He adapted very well to the bike, and the combination has been very strong this season.
“Congratulations to all of them, I hope to fight in the future with them.”
