The 2024 WorldSBK Championship has now concluded, with Turkish rider Toprak Razgatlioglu claiming his second title in the series and his first with BMW.
The 28-year-old consistently outperformed the competition throughout the year, cementing his name in several record books from the sport’s 37-year history.
Razgatlioglu’s achievements make him the third rider in WorldSBK history to win championships with two manufacturers, after Troy Corser and James Toseland.
Motorsport Week looks back at how Razgatlioglu, in such a short period, made the plunge to leave a team he had won it all with to a struggling team in the series that struggled to find its feet and conquered the WorldSBK paddock once more to cement his racing legacy.
Yamaha and Razgatlioglu go their separate ways
Razgatlioglu and Yamaha famously ended Jonathan Rea and Kawasaki’s six-year tenure at the top of the WorldSBK summit in 2021. The Turkish rider accumulated 13 wins and produced some remarkable racing with the Northern Irishman.
The success in 2021 led to him being presented with an opportunity to test the R1 MotoGP Yamaha at Aragon the following year. Despite the weather reducing his time on the track, Yamaha and Razgatlioglu completed a second test together in 2023 at Jerez.
During that test, relations between this history-making partnership began to head south. This multi-day test didn’t go as planned, with the then 26-year-old revealing much later that he intended to stop the test earlier than expected.
Kennan Sofuoglu, his manager and the illustrious five-time World Supersport champion, convinced him to continue out of respect for Yamaha, despite the Japanese marque’s key personnel stating he wasn’t quick enough to meet expectations.
Maio Meregalli said: “I don’t know how much he grew. Honestly, I expected his times to be more consistent after two days. However, I don’t think he pushed too hard.”
With this feedback in mind, Jerez’s 2023 Spring test left Razgatlioglu in quite the predicament. His contract in WorldSBK was over at the end of the season, but he knew he had to leave an organisation that didn’t seem to value his potential contribution in MotoGP.
Not long after the test, on May 21, both parties would separate at the end of the season. One of WorldSBK’s best riders was now on the market and looking for a new home.
“I want to say to the whole Yamaha family a very big thank you for the love and respect they have shown me. To win the World Championship was my dream when I signed with Yamaha, and we reached that goal together,” he said. “For next season I feel I need a new challenge and while there was an opportunity in MotoGP, I didn’t feel the same connection with the MotoGP bike that I have with the superbike.
“But if I am to stay in WorldSBK then I need a new target, a new ambition. I am sorry to leave Yamaha, both the brand and the people, as we have a very good relationship, but change is part of any sport and normal for any professional.”
May 22, 2023: BMW acquire Toprak Razgatlioglu on a multi-year deal
The day after his announcement that he would leave Yamaha at the end of 2023, it was revealed he had chosen BMW. At the time, it was a decision that didn’t make much sense from an outside perspective. The Bavarian manufacturer announced its intention to join as a factory outfit in 2019, and its success up to that point was virtually non-existent.
Razgatlioglu replaced former MotoGP rider and BSB champion Scott Redding, who finished eighth and 14th in the 2022 and 2023 championships respectively. This disappointing feat showed the incapable qualities that BMW possessed in prior years.
His “new target” and “new ambition” appeared to be a bridge too far. It was known at the time that BMW had a far larger budget to attract Razgatlioglu, and many fans and media personnel alike questioned the motive behind the move.
Was it for apparent financial gain? What could he see that we couldn’t? The most significant question was whether he could win a Riders’ title with BMW.
February 25, 2024: A podium on his maiden BMW outing
The 2024 regulations shake-up saw ballast added to the bikes and changes to RPM and fuel tank capacity reductions. This made a difference to Ducati’s two-time champion Alvaro Bautista as he was forced to gain weight because he was one of the lightest on the grid.
BMW and Razgatlioglu’s first outing at Phillip Island gave the team plenty of optimism. In only his second race during the Superpole, he claimed a first podium with the team, but also retired for the first and only time all season in Race 2 on Sunday due to an engine failure.
March 23, 2024: The breakthrough BMW victory
In only his fourth race for BMW, victory arrived in Barcelona in the weekend’s opening race. Razgatlioglu started on pole, but his championship rival Nicolo Bulega had stolen the show for most of the race and sustained a five-second advantage out front. The BMW rider, with 10 laps to go, hunted down the Italian rookie and displayed blistering pace to go back within 0.7 seconds ahead of the final lap. Razgatlioglu lapped 1.282s faster than the factory Ducati rider and sealed a move past his rival on the final lap to win.
Razgatlioglu’s confidence improved significantly heading into the Superpole race later on that weekend, with a matchup against his old foe, Bautista. Bautista had recovered from 11th to set up yet another duel and salvaged the lead down the start-finish straight on the last lap. While Bautista clung to the lead throughout the last lap, the Turkish rider pulled off one of the best overtakes of the season as he emulated Valentino Rossi’s last corner pass on Jorge Lorenzo in 2009 to win his second race for the team.
“I was then just thinking in the last corner and what Valentino Rossi did many years ago, so I thought ‘Why not now?’ and I was close enough,” he said post-race. “I used second gear in the last corner, took the line and the plan was perfect. The acceleration wasn’t bad and I am winning again. I’m not surprised, I was just thinking in the last corner!
“I used second gear for acceleration because maybe in third gear, it doesn’t accelerate well in third gear. This Superpole Race and especially the last corner have given me good memories! Maybe it’s one of my top three race wins.”
June 16, 2024: Razgatlioglu secures the treble
After a mixed outing at Assen, Razgatlioglu’s weekend at Misano was what truly kick-started his 2024 campaign. He posted a pole position lap of 1.32.320s and never looked back.
Razgatlioglu achieved his first treble for BMW and a first since 2022, winning in Race 1 by 1.7s, Superpole by 1.6s and Race 2 by 2.9s.
This accomplishment in his new surroundings signified a change in the championship standings as it elevated him into the position of the new leader. From then on, he never relinquished his lead in the standings. The weekend’s affairs capped off a dominant display, which saw him accumulate a much-needed 62 points in the standings.
August 11, 2024: A record-breaking 13 wins in a row for BMW
Razgatlioglu’s dominance and sheer raw pace were shown in the subsequent rounds, which started at Donnington Park. In qualifying, the Turkish rider smashed the lap record by 1.2s from last year’s best to claim pole position. His final lap time of 1.24.892s meant he started at the front of the grid for Race 1.
Razgatlioglu’s weekend display at the British Grand Prix was truly a masterclass. He was a cut above the rest of the field and disappeared into the distance in all three races.
In Race 1, he obliterated the field to win by 11.4s, in the Superpole race he triumphed by a reduced 4.8s before then proceedings to notch the victory in Race 2 by 8s. A combined distance of 24.2s advantage across all three races upped his win streak to seven.
The Turkish rier went on to complete the treble in the next WorldSBK outings at Most and Portimao, with the latter venue seeing him make history in the series once again. Sunday’s Superpole saw Razgatlioglu overtake Jonathan Rea’s and Bautsista’s 11 wins in a row record from the pair’s respective 2018 and 2019 championship-winning campaigns. Despite the 2018 season having two race weekends per season, BMW and Razgatlioglu’s formidable partnership got stronger and stronger throughout the season.
It felt like nothing could stop him. He was in a world of his own. The title looked to be wrapped up earlier than expected. But he showed that he was human after all….
September 6, 2024: A life-threatening crash at Magny-Cours
After 13 incredible wins in a row, the WorldSBK series returned to its usual Magny-Cours slot. The championship looked set to be decided in the coming race weekends with five rounds left to go. However, proceedings took a monumental shift, with Razgatlioglu suffering from a severe crash in the final sector which saw him clatter into the tyre barrier head-on, rejoining just off the circuit’s racing line.
Following initial examinations at the medical centre, he was taken to Moulins hospital, where he spent the night. Doctors diagnosed a mild pneumothorax, and the championship leader was declared unfit for the remainder of the race weekend.
The sheer luck in avoiding significant injuries at such a fast-paced crash and part of the circuit could have prevented him from winning the championship. He missed Magny-Cours and the inaugural Cremona round to recover, which enabled his closest title rival, Bulega, to close up in a championship race which had been one-sided until Razgatlioglu’s incident.
October 19, 2024: Razgatlioglu makes history
As Bulega closed the gap for the final three rounds of the season, Razgatlioglu’s return marked numerous questions relating to his fitness. After all, a punctured lung and going up to speeds of 180mph plus at certain tracks wasn’t going to be an easy task.
But once again, the outright speed of the Turk allowed him to be instantly competitive for the remainder of the season. He wrapped up three-second places at Aragon, and then secured two wins at Estoril to put one hand on the trophy heading into the season finale at Jerez. In Race 1, he needed to finish inside the top three to win, which he achieved.
Razgatlioglu’s campaign has seen one of the best individual performances of all time, having won exactly half of the races. Hardly anyone, if anybody, would expect such a miraculous turnaround and fortune for both BMW and Razgatlioglu. The success achieved in such a short space of time has seen a new marque involved at the front of the pecking order with a rider who has been able to extract the absolute maximum of the bike’s limited capabilities.
BMW’s history-making season puts the German outfit as first-time champions in the series and on two wheels, but the team’s success once again shows that every rider must have a team that backs its rider fully.
“I am genuinely happy because this race is very important for me and the race isn’t finished because I see the last 10 laps and I say, ‘we are 10 laps, you know, there are many laps’,” he said after Race 1 at Jerez. But finally, you know, I finish the race second position because I lose a lot and I say ‘Ok, I see the gap [is] a lot and second position is good, save [the tyres], better to finish today’.
“I’m really happy, finally we did it and we are the world champion. This team is amazing because everyone was pushing hard, and you know, when I signed with BMW, everyone was talking about me, you know, saying, ‘Is his career finished’?
“But now they understand now I think, I’m very happy, I win the championship with two different brands [Yamaha and BMW] and we look to the future and I’m very happy so thank you very much.”
Heading into 2025, WorldSBK promises another exciting year of superbike racing, with various manufacturers able to compete for victories and podiums. The dynamic duo of Turkey’s newly crowned two-time champion and BMW will be looking to go two steps further and challenge for the Teams and Manufacturers titles with Ducati.
