Former MotoGP rider Ben Spies expects Toprak Razgatlioglu must “acclimate his riding style” to make a successful switch from WorldSBK.
Spies won the 2009 WorldSBK championship for Yamaha before moving over to its satellite MotoGP team for the 2010 campaign, a path similar to Razgatlioglu’s ahead of next year.
The American had a moderately successful career in MotoGP, winning a race at the 2011 Dutch TT as well as six podiums before retiring in 2013.
Spies said if he was in Razgatlioglu’s position, he also would have made the switch to MotoGP.
“Well, it’s been talked about for a couple of years now,” Spies told SuperbikePlanet.
“I’ve spoken with him a lot, him and his manager about it for a few years now.
“I’m on the same page with them. The dilemma was obviously if Toprak [Razgatlioglu] wanted to stay in WorldSBK and become the king of WorldSBK or go to MotoGP.
“Toprak really really wants to try and if I was in his position to do it all over again, I probably would do the same.
“With what he’s accomplished already in Superbike there’s no wrong thing to do. There’s no doubt about that.”
‘Toprak Razgatlioglu amongst the top three most talented riders in the world’ – Ben Spies
Spies also praised the Turkish rider as one of the three most talented riders in the world, but questioned how the adaptation would work.
“The question is, just how are things going to go?” Spies questioned.
“Right off the bat, I do believe he’s for sure a top five, probably top three most talented riders in the world.
“Toprak will have to acclimate his riding style. The way that he kind of sits on the bike and just a little bit of how he brakes, which is, you know, he’s a demon breaker.
“Getting the bike stopped pointed and stuff like that. That’s the other part of it, he’s going to have to manipulate his style a little bit to make the GP bikes work.
“I’m not saying he can’t do that, but he’s so on one side of the spectrum of riding the motorcycle in a very good way.
“I do think that he’s going to have to pull back a little bit on the way that he rides so extreme.
“And bump up the corner speed a little bit and get off of the front brake a little bit sooner, and getting the bike rolling, all those kind of things.”
Spies also questioned whether Razgatlioglu would have enough time to adapt to MotoGP machinery with his two-year Pramac Yamaha deal despite his talent level.
“Is he able to do it? Because, you know, there’s two things: it’s his age is one and two, he’s been riding production street motorcycles his whole career, not Moto3 and Moto2 [or] MotoGP bikes.
“So, yes, there’s a difference. Not saying he can’t make that difference and make the changes that he’ll kind of need to. It’ll be exciting to watch.”
