BMW: Toprak Razgatlioglu one of the best drivers in the world / World Superbike Championship

With Toprak Razgatlioglu, BMW seems to have found the missing piece of the puzzle that was needed for success in the World Superbike Championship. The Turk took his first podium at the season opener at Phillip Island and his first double win at the second event in Barcelona. Both were races where the M1000RR had underperformed so far.

ROKiT BMW team boss Shaun Muir later found out what a golden boy was entering his team.

“I didn’t know Toprak as a rider other than what everyone saw in the monitors. Now that he is performing on our motorcycle, with all the strengths and weaknesses of the bike, I have to say that he is one of the five best motorcycle riders in the world. And I mean in all the rows and the paddocks, I’m sure of that,” the Englishman said in an interview with SPEEDWEEK.com. “He has the ability to get the best out of the bike while compensating for its weaknesses. What he does with the bike, the way he balances it, slows it down and accelerates it while controlling the chassis, is better than any other pilot can do. That’s the difference. His riding quality is higher than that of others.”

Among his brand colleagues, Scott Redding and Garrett Gerloff from the BMW Bonovo action team in particular expressed doubts as to whether Razgatlioglu could successfully use his extreme driving style with BMW.

“What Toprak did with the bike after stopping and what we saw in the data, our other three riders couldn’t have imagined he could do that,” smiled Muir. “In my opinion, it was during the test at Phillip Island that he started to believe that he could win the world championship this year. He didn’t believe that when he signed with BMW.”