Carlos Checa on Toprak Razgatlioglu: Huge talent, poor strategy

500cc GP winner, Superbike champion, DAZN pundit: even 13 years after retiring from the two biggest motorcycle world championships, Carlos Checa still knows his stuff inside out. Speaking on SPEEDWEEK.com, he praised Ducati’s brilliant move to promote serial Superbike winner Nicolò Bulega to MotoGP for 2027.

The Italian is already 121 points clear of his nearest rival, Iker Lecuona, heading into the first short Superbike summer break, and has been unbeaten for 25 races across both seasons! Bulega will ride for Valentino Rossi’s VR46 Ducati team alongside Fermin Aldeguer in 2027 and 2028. And hardly anyone would be surprised if the 26-year-old were to make an immediate and impressive impact in MotoGP too. This is because he has been heavily involved this year in the development of the new 850cc machine from Borgo Panigale – featuring reduced aerodynamics, Pirelli tyres and no height-adjustable suspension – and will arrive at the winter tests perfectly prepared.

The situation is quite different for Toprak Razgatlioglu. The Turkish rider moved up to MotoGP after winning three Superbike World Championship titles, but Yamaha’s gap to the front-runners has widened once again this year, and he has so far managed no better than eleventh place. The Japanese manufacturer is working hard to improve the package; yet few experts are convinced that a significant step forward will be achieved next year.

“It would have been best for Toprak to carry on in the Superbike World Championship this year and prepare for 2027,” said Carlos Checa. “To do that, though, he would have had to ride a Yamaha in Superbike – I don’t know if that would have been a good option for him.”

Razgatlioglu left Yamaha after the 2023 season and moved to BMW, partly because the R1’s Superbike engine isn’t exactly brimming with power either. The Germans would have been only too happy to keep him on for 2026; for 2027, he could have switched to MotoGP, as there’s bound to be a radical shake-up in the rider market by then anyway.

“Toprak has to start working towards next year right now, because this season is already over for him,” Checa emphasised. “To reach the highest level, you need the right technology and the right rider, but also a strategy. Ducati has the best plan with Bulega. Toprak is a huge talent; it would be interesting to see him on the Ducati. He has a strong will to win, which I like – I like fighters like that. He came into MotoGP at the worst possible moment, because the Yamaha isn’t at the highest level and he wasn’t familiar with the Michelin tyres. He should have waited a year longer before making the switch – as it is, he’s got the worst possible combination.”