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MotoGP or Superbike? Yamaha, Honda or BMW? Where and with whom will Toprak Razgatlioglu race in 2026? These are the big questions Kenan Sofuoglu left us with after the Assen Round of the production-derived racing series. Speaking about his rider's future, the five-time Supersport world champion, Toprak's mentor and manager, revealed to us that he has a plan to make his dream of getting into the premier class of MotoGP a reality. Confirming the interest of Yamaha and Honda, while keeping the doors open toward the possibility of reconfirming the partnership with BMW, the manufacturer with which Razgatlioglu won the title last year, debuting with the M 1000 RR, and with which he is aiming for an encore in this 2025 season.
BMW, the safe haven
Three manufacturers and two paddocks, which can offer quite different perspectives and challenges to the two-time World Superbike Champion. Who, according to Kenan, has a clear and distinct preference between the parties. And we are obviously not talking about the German manufacturer. Although it is the most logical and concrete option among the three, being reconfirmed in BMW represents more of a safety net for Toprak and his manager than the goal to which they aspire.
In fact, continuing with the Bavarian manufacturer would allow the 28-year-old to continue competing with one of the most competitive bikes on the grid, enjoying the full support of a manufacturer that has no problems with putting its hand in its wallet and which could potentially offer him an outlet to MotoGP in 2027, when Pirelli and the new technical regulations come into force. An attractive prospect, but not the preferred one of the Turkish champion, who is looking for new stimulation and a competitive project with which to race in MotoGP as early as next year.
Yamaha, the prospect that fascinates
Almost surprisingly after the famous test with the M1 held in Jerez in 2023, which was the breaking point between Toprak and Yamaha, all indications point to the fact that it is with the Iwata manufacturer that Kenan is looking to build his protégé's future. Despite the fact that the treatment he received from the blue team during the two-day test in Andalusia pushed the two-time Superbike champion into the arms of BMW, convinced that he was no longer wanted by his old team, relations between him and Yamaha are no longer as strained as they once were. Thanks mainly to the renewal of the organizational chart operated by the Japanese manufacturer in recent seasons, with the inclusion of figures such as technical director Massimo Bartolini and, especially, Paolo Pavesio, Yamaha's Managing Director since January 1 of this year.
What completely transformed the scenario and made the negotiations between the Turk and the Japanese manufacturer start up again was not only the managerial change at the top of the MotoGP team, but precisely the entire set-up recently created in the premier class of the MotoGP world championship. The distance that once existed between the factory and satellite teams no longer exists in today's MotoGP, where Jorge Martin and the Pramac team got the better of the Ducati Factory team in 2024. This is an epochal change for Sofuoglu, who just together with Paolo Campinoti's team would like to shape his project: to provide Toprak with a competitive team, which would give him an official bike, with the full support of the parent company, and the possibility of continuing to collaborate with his personal sponsor Red Bull. Something that yesterday, today and tomorrow would be impossible in a reality like the Monster Energy Yamaha team.
A perfect plan on paper. Payback on what should have been and wasn't. But everything is subject to Yamaha's willingness to take the risk of preferring the Turkish champion to riders with proven experience in the championship, such as Jack Miller (the only one of the two Pramac riders whose contract is expiring at the end of the year) or Enea Bastianini.
Honda, Plan B
If the Yamaha deal does not go through, Kenan may have another card to play to bring Toprak to MotoGP. It is no mystery that Honda is looking for a Top Rider to be entrusted with an ever-improving RC213V. The name at the top of the wish list is that of Pedro Acosta, but the talented young Spaniard is the forbidden dream of most of the lineup, and it will not be easy for the Tokyo manufacturer to convince him to sign.
That is why there is also the profile of Razgatlioglu among the options evaluated by HRC, which, however, seems more inclined to deploy the Turkish ace on a CBR1000RR-R than on its MotoGP bike. At least in 2026. This seems to be the big hurdle to overcome for a marriage between the two parties. As unlikely as it seems to be at the moment, however, it cannot be ruled out that El Turco will be enchanted by the CBR and the prospect of being successful in Superbike with three different brands. Trying to replicate what he did last year with BMW, before crowning his dream of racing in MotoGP.
The alternatives are clear, but we will have to wait until at least Cremona to know for sure which of the projects on the table will have Toprak's signature for 2026.
