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The aliens have landed in Jerez: Toprak Razgatlioglu and BMW have completed an "extraterrestrial" season, winning the title of World Champions in the first race in Andalusia in the last Round of the season. An achievement celebrated precisely with the unfailing golden suit, worn for the occasion in a small UFO "landed" at the edge of the track.
"In a post on Instagram, someone had written that I was an alien after the many victories with BMW, so we used the alien mask. I had fun, and I hope we all did," Toprak said, explaining the reason for the prank - How come it took me so long to change the suit? Because it is new and the space I was in was small. We worked on the UFO for three or four days, it was not something done professionally, but just for fun."
Celebrations rounded off with a nice burnout in the pit lane.
"I think the Pirelli manager is happy, but not my electronics because it's not good for the engine - he commented laughing - It's okay though, because we are World Champions. I had a good burnout this time and these are good memories for BMW."
The one scored this year is an important title for the 28-year-old, already a Champion in 2021 with Yamaha.
"All World titles are very special. With Yamaha we became World Champions 12 years after the title they won with Ben Spies, while BMW had never won a World Championship before. Now we have done it: they won the first title and I won the second. It's terrific, I'm really happy and it's also special for me that BMW won its first title with me," Razgatlioglu underlined. " Who do I dedicate the title to? To myself. The first one was for my father, this one is for me, maybe another one will be for my brother."
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Toprak knows what it took to bring this result home, but for him it is still too early to define the scope of this World Championship.
"I think it's early to talk about it, because if I don't have any big crashes I might have another 10 years ahead of me. Maybe I could win more titles in my career, even with other manufacturers in the future, but we'll see," he commented, " I'm still thinking about other manufacturers, maybe I could go to MotoGP. I don't know. Next year I will still be with BMW and I might even continue with them. I don't know, however, I am thinking about changing brands again in the future."
What is certain is that the Turk will sport the number 1 on his M 1000 RR in 2025.
"Yes, because BMW deserves it," he confirmed, "They won the title after so many years and they deserve it. I used the number 1 with Yamaha, so why not do it with BMW as well? Everyone is very happy right now. Did I say it was not a good idea when I had it on the bike? Usually yes, but there is no problem for BMW. I don't like it very much, but I will use it for them."
So much effort after all has been made by the Munich-based manufacturer to achieve this goal.
"We focused on engine braking, especially in the first tests. In the first test I crashed because it was working in a strange way, but then we focused on this aspect, we improved it and now I am really happy with the engine brake. We still have to improve the grip and traction control, though . I think this bike will take a big step forward next year if we can improve these two aspects," said Razgatlioglu. "This year I didn't know what the real level was, but when I started winning in Europe I realized that I was starting to believe in it more, because before I had just won a few races and got a few podiums, but then we started a series of wins and now we are World Champions and it's incredible."
A ride to the title that threatened to crash into the wall inside Turn 15 at Magny-Cours.
"When I came to BMW many people were talking about my career, but after a few wins they started to understand my potential. Some people thought BMW made a special bike for me, but that's not true, because the riders of the ROKiT and Bonovo teams all ride the same bike. I didn't have an easy 3 or 4 weeks after the injury, because I was thinking about getting back very quickly. I didn't go back home, but I stayed in Europe. I had low motivation because I couldn't train and if I hadn't come back in Aragon we wouldn't be here talking now. I had a really good weekend there and I started to believe in it more again," the Turkish rider recounted, going over what has happened in the past month.
"Without the crash in France, maybe the title fight would have ended three weekends earlier, but the crash destroyed everything and from then on I kept thinking about the title and preparing a strategy. Especially for Aragon, which was my last chance," he continued, " If I crashed again it would have been a big problem, so I tried to stay calm. Except in Race 2, where I was only thinking about beating Bautista and winning. In the end I finished second, but they were still important points and in Portugal, after winning, I knew I was back. Here I only needed to finish in the top three, but I pushed hard at the beginning, to secure second position, because I knew Bulega was very strong. But then, in the race, I felt some vibrations and I was worried because they were like the ones I felt last year in Most before the crash, so I closed the throttle. Tomorrow I will have fun. Now that it's all over I'm free to crash, so I'll be able to push to finish in a good position."
