It was 2013 when Toprak Razgatlioglu raced at Austin for the first time; he was riding a KTM RC 250 R, and the series was the Red Bull Rookies Cup. On that occasion, “El Turco” finished third twice, sharing the podium in Race 2 with Karel Hanika (that year’s champion) and the Italian Manuel Pagliani. But Toprak also raced at CoTa last year; the occasion was a BMW event, and the bike, of course, was the Bavarian beast, the M1000RR.
Tomorrow, however, Toprak will take to the track riding the Yamaha M1, and by now we realize well that you can know a track by heart, but if you then ride it on a MotoGP bike, the same track becomes a new track and you have to start from scratch. More power, more aerodynamics, more electronics, more of everything. And then there are the tyres. That’s right, the tyres— “in MotoGP, everything hinges on them”—the Michelins, which are Razgatlioglu’s real struggle in this initial phase of adapting to MotoGP. The front tyre less so, but the rear, on the other hand, is still something of an enigma that Toprak is having a hard time deciphering. He had already said so after the race in Brazil and repeated it today, on the eve of the Grand Prix of the Americas.
“The first time I raced in Austin was in 2013 with the Rookies Cup. Then, last year, we competed in a BMW event and I managed to do about fifteen, maybe twenty laps on the M1000RR. So yes, I know the track.”
Do you like the layout?
“Yes, I do. But we’ll see how it goes with MotoGP. It’s a really unique track, different from the others, with lots of ups and downs. The first sector, in particular, is really very difficult. In the first five laps there aren’t too many problems, but after that it becomes physically very demanding for the riders. In any case, with the Yamaha we’ll try to push as hard as possible to get the best result we can.”
The fact that there are many bumps might require a slightly softer setup. Do you think this could help you?
“It’s not easy to say before getting on the bike, because this is my first time on a MotoGP bike at this track. That’s what they say, but we’ll see. When I rode here last year on the BMW, I honestly didn’t notice that many bumps. But MotoGP and the 400cc bikes are completely different. For now, I don’t know.”
From Thailand to Brazil, do you feel you’ve made progress?
“The feeling with the bike is improving, but the sensation with the tyres is still very strange. I’m adapting more and more to the front, partly because almost everyone uses more or less the same setup up front, both in the race and during practice sessions. The rear, on the other hand, is really unique, because there’s a very narrow window where you can truly exploit its potential. Everyone else has been racing with these tyres for years, while I’m still trying to fully understand this window of use. In Brazil, my main problem was rear grip. Up front, the problem is more or less the same for everyone—the front end always moves under braking—but under acceleration, I feel the biggest gap compared to the others. I still can’t find enough grip, and managing the tyre isn’t easy either. That was my biggest problem in Brazil."
Things went very well on Friday in Goiânia. You finished third in pre-qualifying.
“Yes, but the conditions were mixed, between wet and dry,” he immediately clarified. “In those situations, on slicks, I’ve always been strong, both in Superbike and here. It looked like I could be competitive even in MotoGP, but we weren’t on a dry track. I’d said it on Friday too: there was no reason to get too excited, because in those conditions not all riders really push to the limit. We had to wait until Saturday, with the track completely dry or completely wet, to really understand where we’d stand. And in fact, on Saturday I had very different feelings: when we found more grip on the track, the bike stopped turning, and the overall handling changed a lot. In fact, on Saturday, when everything went wrong, my motivation dropped a lot, because after Friday I was expecting a much better weekend. On Saturday, after the race, I was really down."
How much does the fact that you’re still in the learning phase affect things?
“I know I have a journey ahead of me. I’m still trying to get to know the tyres. On the bike side, things are already better: by now I understand this MotoGP bike much more, and I’m also trying to change my riding style. But honestly, I’m a bit tired of talking about the bike. The issue isn’t so much the bike anymore: the real problem is adapting to the tyres, not the machine. Sometimes I also think that this year I’m learning so many things, from the tyres to the suspension, but next year everything will change again. It’s tough… It’s not easy for me, because after so many years in Superbike, where we were doing very well, everything is more complicated here.”
In Brazil, you said that coming out of the corner you saw Quartararo pulling away. From analyzing the data, have you been able to figure out why there’s such a big difference?
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s better at using the tyre. Maybe I’m not yet exploiting its full potential, while he rides much better with this tyre. Or maybe he has a different setup. I just know that his rear grip seems a bit better than mine, but I don’t know exactly what it depends on. In the end, here, it’s all about the tyres. Anyway, the difference was only in a few corners, where he had a small advantage. In the others, we were similar.”
Your performance, in fact, already seems practically on par with that of the other Yamaha riders.
“I always look at the Yamaha riders and just try to keep up with them. But even that is difficult. I’m really pushing over 100 percent,” he concluded.