Toprak Razgatlioglu on the Superbike calendar: “We need more races”

Having won three Superbike World Championships – one with Yamaha (2021) and two with BMW (2024 and 2025) – Toprak Razgatlioglu was looking for a new challenge and moved to the Yamaha Pramac team in MotoGP. In the prototype series, new rivals, new tyres, new technologies such as the holeshot device and new circuits awaited the exceptional Turkish rider.

What’s more, the MotoGP calendar features significantly more race weekends than Razgatlioglu was used to from the Superbike World Championship. The premier class is visiting 22 circuits this year, whereas the production-based World Championship is visiting just twelve.

“Half a season is over – half a season is roughly equivalent to a Superbike season, as the Superbike season comprises a total of twelve races. So I’ve completed roughly a full Superbike season,” Razgatlioglu told crash.net on the sidelines of the Silverstone GP. “The Superbike series needs more races. I do like the calendar, but over the last two years I’ve really been bored because we’re racing fewer times there.”

However, it is not just the number of rounds that the 78-time Superbike winner feels is too few, but also their spread from February to October and, in some cases, long breaks.

“There are long breaks after the race weekends – particularly after Donington Park, it’s almost two months. That’s good for the riders, but it’s too much. Why too much? A two-month summer break is fine, I understand that; it’s the summer break, which is nice, but after the race there’s another three-week break. I don’t like that,” criticises the 29-year-old. “We need more races. It’s a world championship; we need at least 15 or 16 races. If they change that, I think the Superbike World Championship will be much better.”

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