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After two days of testing with the M1 in Jerez, all eyes are on Toprak Razgatlioglu, one of the key figures in the SBK rider market. What is Yamaha's idea of the Turkish rider's performance? And who will take his place if he decides to switch to MotoGP? Yamaha Motor Europe's Road Racing Manager, Andrea Dosoli, answered some of the most burning questions of these days, trying to bring some clarity and taking stock of the situation.
“From my point of view, Razgatlioglu's test was very positive. We had a couple of targets in mind. On the one hand, the rider wanted to discover the MotoGP bike. Last year he had a test at Aragon, but had to stop early due to the weather, but this time he had the chance to ride for two days in good weather conditions - explained the manager to the official site of the SBK World Championship - Yamaha, for its part, is one of the manufacturers that is investing the most in the development of the riders and with this test we didn't so much want to assess Toprak's level as to understand how long it takes him to adapt the MotoGP bike to what is its most talented rider who recently won the World Championship. Both targets have been achieved, so it was a positive test."
Two useful days for Razgatlioglu to start getting a precise idea of how to ride a prototype.
“For sure now he certainly understands what kind of riding style a MotoGP needs, which obviously is different from a production-based machine and has different tires - underlined Dosoli - Toprak understood this, he tried to modify his style and has already achieved good results in terms of feedback. For sure there is more work to be done, but at least he would know what to expect if an offer comes to him in the future and he decides to take it”.
What is the ideal situation for Yamaha Motor Europe?
“In general, Yamaha's goal is to keep Toprak within the family and we're working on it. Where it doesn't matter" explained Andrea, who already has in mind how to replace Razgatlioglu should he leave the Pata Yamaha Prometeon team to go to MotoGP: "If the opportunity arises, and I don't know if this will be the case, we have worked hard in the last few years on the development of riders and we have a strong line-up. Bradley Ray is one of the latest to join us and will contest his first race here in Assen. Then we have Andrea Locatelli, Remy Garner and Dominique Aegerter. We have a lot of riders. We are just in the second race of the year and we would like to see more, but the target would certainly be to promote one of our guys”.
