Toprak Razgatlioglu emphasises: “It will be easier for Izan Guevara than it was for him”

Between 2025 and 2026, only two names changed on the MotoGP starting grid: Moto2 World Champion Diogo Moreira moved up, and three-time Superbike Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu joined the line-up. It was the end of the road for Miguel Oliveira and Somkiat Chantra, who moved to the World Superbike Championship to join the BMW and Honda works teams.

For the 2027 season, almost a quarter of the regular riders will be replaced: Joining from Moto2 are Izan Guevara (22), Daniel Holgado (21), David Alonso (20) and Senna Agius (21), as well as Superbike series winner Nicolo Bulega. Whilst Jack Miller, Brad Binder and Franco Morbidelli are moving to the World Superbike Championship and Alex Rins is doing everything he can to follow suit, Maverick Viñales’s career is drawing to a close.

Razgatlioglu was well aware that his first season in MotoGP would be a challenging one. However, the Turkish rider had not anticipated such a underperforming Yamaha M1 and such significant difficulties in adapting: Currently 21st in the World Championship, he sits on 14 points ahead of this coming weekend’s races in Aragon, just behind his team-mates Alex Rins (21 points) and Jack Miller (23); only Fabio Quartararo stands out from the blue quartet, sitting 14th with 55 points. Among the 22 regular riders, only the chronically injured Maverick Viñales (Red Bull KTM Tech3), on ten points, is placed behind Razgatlioglu.

“He deserves a seat in MotoGP,” says Toprak (29) of his team-mate for next year at Prima Pramac Yamaha. “Besides, he’s young, which is good. We need the younger generation for the future. He’s raced in Moto3 and Moto2 and is making the move to MotoGP; he already has the right style for this class. That’s why I believe he’ll be very successful in the future. It’ll be easier for him because of the tyres, and then there are the new engines, which are very similar to a Moto2 power unit. His move is coming at just the right time.”

Razgatlioglu, on the other hand, has chosen the worst possible time for his debut season in 2026: The current Yamaha isn’t competitive; he’s had to adapt from Pirelli to Michelin tyres for a season and also learn to use aids such as the height-adjustable suspension, which will be banned after this season. Added to this is the fact that the engine capacity will be reduced from 1,000 to 850 cc for the period from 2027 to the end of 2031.

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28.08.2026 - 08:55