A couple of lines are needed, at the risk of sounding controversial. Announcing the Razgatlioglu-Yamaha agreement on the website of the Iwata manufacturer, with two images in which two fiercely rival sponsors, Monster and Red Bull, coexist, doesn't seem to us to be the most professional thing possible.
It's a fact that Monster is the sponsor of the Yamaha Factory team, but Toprak, although he has signed a contract with the manufacturer, will be a Pramac rider, thus as part of Paolo Campinoti's satellite team.
We realize the difficulties of spinning communication in the best possible way, especially when there are probably still details to be worked out, yet this solution didn't seem to be the most elegant.
It's often said, and I who started as a photojournalist along with the great Gigi Soldano, am increasingly convinced of this, that a picture is worth more than a sixty-line piece. So, what does the image of the handshake between Paolo Pavesio and Toprak Razgatlioglu tell us? That a company whose main sponsor is the energy drink created in 2002 by Rodney Sacks and which has become a benchmark for an adrenaline lifestyle, has hired a sportsman, Toprak, who has an existing contract with the company founded in 1984 by Dietrich Mateschitz that has been using the same business strategy since a long time before.
We don't know, but we assume, that Red Bull after losing Marc Marquez will do their utmost to not let the Turk get away as well, but these are details. Let's remember, however, that Marquez when he signed for Ducati - a Red Bull rider himself - certainly did not let himself be photographed with the Bull logos, preferring the 'All Red' of the Barcelona tests.
