Toprak Razgatlioglu, what a struggle in MotoGP! "Not even Marquez would win on the Yamaha"

The Turkish rider is adapting to a completely new reality, and it isn’t easy after years of success in SBK. Some are taking his side.

Even though Toprak Razgatlioglu has great talent and earned the chance to test himself in MotoGP, arriving there on a Yamaha M1 wasn’t the best choice to showcase his potential. The 2025 version already had its limits, but in 2026, with the historic introduction of the V4 engine, he’s dealing with a very immature project that feels more like a “test” for 2027, when the new technical regulations will arrive and the Iwata manufacturer hopes to be better prepared.

If you like Corsedimoto’s content, you can select us as a preferred source on Google by clicking here

In the first six rounds of the 2026 MotoGP calendar, the three-time Superbike World Champion has collected only 4 points. He scored the first with a fifteenth place in the Austin race, and the other three with thirteenth at Le Mans. These have been his best results so far. He is twenty-second in the overall standings.

As for qualifying, only in Brazil did he manage to reach Q2, after a mixed-conditions Practice that played to his strengths and allowed him to end Friday with the third-fastest time. Then on Saturday morning he didn’t go beyond the twelfth time, thus closing out the fourth row of the grid. His best starting position so far.

When he raced in the SBK World Championship, he was used to something very different—constantly being right at the front. And if he finished second, he was often disappointed, which in turn fueled his motivation. Now the scenario has completely changed. He expected it to some extent, because he knew that with the Prima Pramac Yamaha M1 he wouldn’t be immediately fast and would need time to learn the many novelties of MotoGP; on the other hand, it’s reasonable that he expected greater progression and to be a bit more competitive.

Michelin tires are different from Pirellis, and riding a prototype requires a different style compared to Superbike. In Barcelona, Toprak highlighted the need to improve with the soft rear tire, because he can’t exploit its extra grip. Braking, corner entry, mid-corner speed, and corner exit are aspects he worked on during the test, finding improvements only with the medium tire. Together with the Prima Pramac Yamaha team, he will have to find a way to use the soft tire better as well, which is crucial in qualifying and also in sprint races. This weekend they race at Mugello, where he last competed in 2014 when he was in the Red Bull Rookies Cup: he finished fifth, the winner was Jorge Martin, now riding for Aprilia in MotoGP. Also on track were two other current top-class colleagues, Fabio Di Giannantonio (seventh) and Joan Mir (retired).

Interviewed by Speedweek, Alex Lowes commented on the Turkish rider’s situation, emphasizing how things have changed in the move from Superbike to MotoGP: "I don’t think he can be the same as before. If he can’t fight at the front, he’s not the same rider. If you’ve won 13 races in a row and suddenly you have to settle for a single point by finishing fifteenth, it’s a whole different thing. If you do a perfect race and maybe finish eleventh, you can’t have the same motivation as someone fighting for the win. Look at Fabio Quartararo: is he the same Fabio as when he was world champion? No."

The current Bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team rider highlights that, despite a rider’s great talent, technology makes a huge difference and the level of the bike you have affects the results: "If you put Marc Marquez on a Yamaha, obviously he wouldn’t win either. If you put Bulega on the Bimota, he still wouldn’t become world champion."

Razgatlioglu doesn’t have the right machine and isn’t in a position to be much further up the order: "He arrived in a new championship—adds Lowes—with new tires and new technical regulations: everything was new. Yamaha is probably in its most difficult moment of the last ten years. Under these circumstances, you have virtually no chance."

Toprak accepted the risk of racing in MotoGP already in 2026 with the belief that it could still be something preparatory for 2027, when there will be new technical regulations and also a new tire supplier. Beyond seeing a very committed Yamaha for the future, the presence of Pirelli tires in particular makes him fairly optimistic, even if they won’t be the same as those he used over the years in Superbike.