Why Danilo Petrucci is despairing over Toprak Razgatlioglu’s BMW legacy

Miguel Oliveira’s fourth-place finishes in the first main race and the sprint at Estoril were the best BMW has managed since both riders suffered serious injuries in May. Whilst the Portuguese rider missed out on the podium in the Sprint by just over a tenth of a second at his home race, his team-mate Danilo Petrucci was nowhere to be seen all weekend – and failed to score any points.

“Estoril was quite difficult. I hadn’t expected us to have such big problems in the races,” Petrucci admitted in an interview with SPEEDWEEK.com. “Qualifying wasn’t too bad; we were quite close to the top 10. As we had nothing to lose, we tried a few things on Saturday. I can’t slow the bike down as I’d like, and it lacks turning ability. If I’m good on the brakes, I don’t have any turning – or the other way round. Unfortunately, some changes didn’t work as planned, but we realised that over the course of the season we’ve gone down a path that’s the opposite of what Toprak used last year. Toprak leaned heavily in one direction to get the best possible deceleration out of the bike. But that doesn’t suit my riding style; I prefer a smoother, faster approach to the corners. With this motorbike, you can only have one thing: good braking or good cornering speed – over the course of the season, I’ve lost both.”

Toprak rode the BMW on a one-off basis

Toprak Razgatlioglu has delivered outstanding performances on the BMW; in his 66 races for the German manufacturer, he has stood on the podium 58 times, winning 39 of them. It has long been clear to the team management in Munich that they need a motorbike on which all riders can be fast, not just Toprak. They have, after all, succeeded in this to the extent that, on some circuits, Oliveira was faster than the Turkish rider last year, both in qualifying and over the race distance.

Petrucci, on the other hand, is struggling; he has been told “from day one” that he needs to ride more like Toprak. The veteran has been pleased to note that Oliveira is also fast in his own style. “And he doesn’t take any cues from Toprak’s riding style at all,” said the Italian, who also noted, however, that Toprak was faster than Oliveira at Estoril. Danilo mused: “Perhaps there’s only one way to ride this bike fast, and that’s by braking whilst still riding upright. That’s the moment when Toprak’s rear wheel lifted off the ground. I’m good on the brakes, especially when entering a corner; I’ve been very quick in that area in the past. Sometimes I was so quick that I couldn’t get the bike back upright in time after the apex and therefore lost speed.”

If you take away his secret weapon, he becomes just an ordinary rider.

Danilo Petrucci on Toprak

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“With my height and weight, I can’t brake the bike all the way down on the straights because the weight transfer is so high,” Danilo continued, going into more detail. “Toprak has braking skills that are very different from my riding style. And he was able to adapt superbly to the Pirelli tyres, which offer a lot of traction straight away. As we’re now seeing in MotoGP, that’s not working out for him there and he’s in trouble. What we’re seeing from him doesn’t reflect his true abilities; he’s capable of much, much more. But if you take away a rider’s secret weapon, he becomes just an ordinary, not-so-fast rider. I was good at corner entry and through the apex, but not when braking with the bike upright. That caused me too many difficulties this year.”

Petrucci has three options for 2027

No decision has yet been made regarding his future. As SPEEDWEEK.com reported, his manager Alberto Vergani is in talks with the Go Eleven Ducati World Superbike team and the OrangeCat BMW team in MotoAmerica – Petrucci’s retirement cannot be ruled out either.

“It’s been a tough year for me,” the BMW works rider admitted candidly. “Given the many poor results, despite my best efforts, you automatically start to wonder whether it’s no longer enough, whether I’m no longer good enough. I need to think very carefully about whether I want to continue racing in the Superbike World Championship.”