Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) will leave Yamaha at the end of 2023, joining the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team for 2024. The Turkish star, the 2021 World Champion for Yamaha, had been linked to the German brand when Kenan Sofuoglu spoke to the media and said that an offer had been made during the Prosecco DOC Catalunya Round. With time away, the final member of the “titanic trio” will confirm he stays in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship and doesn’t jump to MotoGP™, but as far as it goes for the paddock, this is up there with one of the biggest rider market switches, EVER. We look back at the big ones from before.

THE OBVIOUS: Fogarty’s switch from Ducati to Honda and then back to Ducati

The first major change to come in WorldSBK was when Carl Fogarty moved from taking two titles with Ducati in 1994 and 1995 in search of a new challenge, joining the Castrol Honda team in 1996. It would be a bad move, with the defending Champion only taking four wins, albeit a thriller at Hockenheim arguably going down as one of WorldSBK’s greatest races. Struggling to fourth in the Championship and never really challenging, Fogarty headed back to Ducati in 1997 but it took him a year to get back up to speed, before snatching the 1998 title in a final round showdown. He was back to his best in 1999, but he said himself that it took a long time to get back to his 1995 level.

Speaking about breaking up a winning formula, ‘Foggy’ wasn’t in favour of it when Jonathan Rea was on the market in 2022 and stated that he would advise against making the mistake he made in the 90s: “I should never have broken up a winning package. I had the best bike ever in 1995 and I went and broke all that up for a couple of hundred thousand pounds more; I was just stupid really. It cost me the title in 1996 and 1997; it took me two years to get the title back. It’s something I regret to be honest, but Ducati took me back.”

CORSER’S BIG JUMP: Ducati to Aprilia in 2000

Troy Corser was one of the stand-out riders on his way to third in the 1999 season and he fought hard against teammate Carl Fogarty and Castrol Honda’s Colin Edwards. Three wins and 12 podiums meant a strong season for the 1996 World Champion. Meanwhile, 12^th in the overall standings was Peter Goddard on a seemingly uncompetitive and brand-new Aprilia, with just one top five all season. Surely, Corser’s future didn’t lie with the Noale factory? Well, Virginio Ferarri’s team tempted Corser in for 2000 and 2001 and it was a successful partnership, with a podium in just their second race together and home victory in just their fourth at Phillip Island. Five wins across the course of the 2000 season and plenty of podiums saw Corser as a Championship contender, but top four consistency just kept him in third at the end. In 2001, two wins at the start of the season came but it would be fourth overall, nonetheless a shock switch which gave big rewards.

REA GOES GREEN: a match made in Kawasaki heaven

There was little doubt about just how good Jonathan Rea as a rider has been, but on a dated Honda and with injuries interfering, plus a lack of factory support, it was always a story of what could be. Well, when Rea switched to Kawasaki in 2015, it was clear that we were entering into his era in WorldSBK, although perhaps nobody knew quite how dominant he would become. Soon enough, 103 wins, 207 podiums and 48 pole positions later, Rea signed his name in history as the greatest rider of all-time in terms of numbers. The Kawasaki package was on the ascendance before Rea joined, but it was perfected once he was there. A tricky couple of years have seen Rea relinquish the title as the base model ZX-10RR ages, but the Provec-run operation remains well respected.

BAUTISTA BACK IN BOLOGNA RED: unfinished business…

After winning the opening 11 races of 2019 and dominating in his rookie season, it’s nothing short of baffling that Alvaro Bautista didn’t take the crown – to this day, nobody really knows what went wrong. Speaking in The Return documentary, Paolo Ciabatti, Ducati Corse Sporting Director, said, “I wish I knew the answer and I still don’t know” whereas Bautista himself said “Sincerely, I have no idea what happened in 2019.” However, two years away to perfect his skills as a development rider for Honda’s new factory Team HRC outfit resulted in comparatively little success, with no wins but a handful of podiums. In 2021, it was announced that after the sour end to their relationship in 2019, Bautista would be back in Ducati red and #TheReturn was born. Not as dominant, but stratospherically more consistent, a new tool helped Bautista take the 2022 title with a round to spare. 2023’s going the same way, with 2019 domination now being partnered up with his comeback year consistency.

RAZGATLIOGLU LEAPS TO YAMAHA: Toprak made the headlines in another switch

Toprak Razgatlioglu himself isn’t afraid of making the big switches either; the Turkish rider moved out of the Kawasaki family as he didn’t want to play second fiddle to dominant force Jonathan Rea, and when Yamaha made their offer, Razgatlioglu was moved into the Yamaha family. The bike that hadn’t challenged for a Championship and had just a handful of victories and perhaps didn’t suit Razgatlioglu’s aggressive braking style… the Turk proved them wrong with an emphatic victory on his debut. The rest is history, with 31 wins, 78 podiums and a title being bagged. But now we know Razgatlioglu won’t be at Yamaha in the future and that he’ll be at BMW, that instantly makes it one of the biggest we’ve ever seen.

MELANDRI’S FROM YAMAHA TO BMW: it worked then…

Marco Melandri’s rookie season in 2011 saw him take four victories, 15 podiums and challenge for the title with Yamaha, albeit just falling short and finishing second in the Championship. After Yamaha elected to suspend their factory involvement in WorldSBK in 2012, Melandri was on the market and in October 2011, Melandri joined the factory BMW squad, at the time without a victory but improving with podiums. Melandri turned their fortunes around with a podium in his first race and whilst the next six yielded nothing special, he was a winner at Donington Park, heading home teammate Leon Haslam in the first-ever BMW 1-2. Six podiums and four wins in the next nine races saw Melandri as the rider to beat, but a tough end to the year meant he took third overall. He was fourth in 2013 with three wins and remains the manufacturer’s most successful rider.

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A key piece of the 2024 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship rider line-up has fallen into place with Toprak Razgatlioglu joining up with the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team from 2024 on the M1000RR machine. BMW will become the third manufacturer Razgatlioglu has raced with in WorldSBK, following on from Kawasaki and Yamaha, when he links up with the team from the 2024 season onwards.

FROM YAMAHA TO BMW: Razgatlioglu follows in van der Mark’s footsteps

The 2021 Champion will have spent four seasons with Yamaha by the time his contract ends at the end of this season and so far he has won 33 races and taken a total of 93 podiums in WorldSBK career, 31 and 78 of which respectively were with Yamaha while the remainder came when he was with Puccetti Kawasaki in 2018 and 2019. Razgatlioglu’s teammate is currently unknown at this stage for 2024 but he follows in the footsteps of his former teammate, Michael van der Mark, who made the switch for the 2021 campaign and is BMW’s last race winner, having won the Tissot Superpole Race in mixed conditions at Portimao in 2021.

Razgatlioglu joined Yamaha for the 2020 season and got off to a winning start with victory at Phillip Island in Race 1 in 2020, before following that up with two wins to end the season at Estoril. In 2021, he was engaged in a thrilling battle with Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) as he claimed his first world title while Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) joined the fight in 2022 as he took Razgatlioglu’s crown despite the Turkish star winning more races in 2022 than his title-winning campaign. Now, after four seasons with Yamaha, Razgatlioglu will embark on a new challenge with BMW.

Van der Mark made the switch from Yamaha to BMW for the 2021 campaign but he was not the first to do so. Marco Melandri made an instant impact in his rookie campaign with Yamaha but switched to BMW for the 2012 campaign and his switch proved to be a success as he led home BMW’s first ever 1-2 finish. Melandri’s stint with BMW means he remains the German manufacturer’s most successful rider, something Razgatlioglu will look to emulate and beat following his switch to BMW.

BMW SAYS: “A forward-looking step for our project… Toprak is undoubtedly one of the best riders”

Razgatlioglu will line up on the M1000RR for the 2024 campaigns after four seasons with Yamaha as he joins up with BMW on the M1000RR to become the third manufacturer he has raced with in WorldSBK. Discussing his arrival to the team, Marc Bongers, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director, said: “Toprak is undoubtedly one of the best riders in the field at the moment, which he not only proved by winning the 2021 World Championship title. But he’s not just a fast motorcycle racer, he’s also a great personality off the track. We are convinced that Toprak will settle into the BMW Motorrad Motorsport family very quickly. We are looking forward to our collaboration and to our future together.”

Dr. Markus Schramm, Head of BMW Motorrad, added: “Welcome to the BMW Motorrad Motorsport family, Toprak Razgatlioglu. We are delighted to welcome him to our WorldSBK factory squad from next season on. I am very proud that Toprak has opted to join BMW Motorrad. This is a forward-looking step for our project and a strong commitment of BMW Motorrad Motorsport in World Superbike.”

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Source: WorldSBK.com

There are several riders whose contracts expire at the end of the 2023 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship and one of these is Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK). After four seasons with the Japanese manufacturer, Razgatlioglu will leave Yamaha at the end of the 2023 campaign for a new challenge although his destination is yet to be confirmed. Razgatlioglu claimed the 2021 title to become Yamaha’s first World Champion in WorldSBK since 2009 when Ben Spies claimed the title.

A SUCCESSFUL PARTNERSHIP: the story from 2020 to the present day

Razgatlioglu moved to Yamaha for the 2020 campaign and made an instant impact on the Yamaha YZF-R1 machine with victory in Race 1 at Phillip Island, his first race at Yamaha. He finished his 2020 campaign with two more wins at the Circuito Estoril to end his campaign on a high and this spurred him onto a title-winning 2021 campaign. 13 wins and 29 podiums in total came from 37 races in 2021 as he beat Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) in a thrilling-season long fight to end the Ulsterman’s streak of titles.

His form continued into the 2022 campaign and he ended the year with more victories, 14, than he did in his title-winning season but ultimately finished in second place behind Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati). In 2022, he made history by becoming the rider with the most wins for Yamaha by passing the total held by Noriyuki Haga who secured 27 wins for Yamaha during his WorldSBK career. Razgatlioglu has 11 podiums from 12 races so far in the 2023 campaign, including one win at Mandalika in the Tissot Superpole Race.

In total, Razgatlioglu has 31 wins with Yamaha and 47 further podium finishes with the R1 machine to date while he has also had two MotoGP™ tests with Yamaha. He will leave the factory as their second World Champion in WorldSBK from when he helped Yamaha win the Riders’, Teams’ and Manufacturers’ Championships in 2021, becoming the first rider since Ben Spies in 2009 to win the WorldSBK title on a Yamaha, bringing to an end a successful four-year partnership between Razgatlioglu and Yamaha.

Prior to his time with Yamaha, Razgatlioglu spent two seasons with Kawasaki machinery at the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing team. He claimed 15 podiums across two campaigns with the ZX-10RR machine with his first in his rookie season coming at Donington Park. His first wins came a year later at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours when he won from 16th on the grid in both Race 1 and the Tissot Superpole Race.

RAZGATLIOGLU SAYS: “If I am to stay in WorldSBK then I need a new target, a new ambition”

26-year-old Razgatlioglu, who is also a STK600 title winner and STK1000 runner-up, will leave Yamaha at the end of the current campaign as he seeks a new challenge after four seasons with the Yamaha YZF-R1 machine. Both Yamaha and Razgatlioglu will still aim to fight for the title in the 2023 season although they find themselves trailing Bautista by 69 points in the Riders’ Championship standings.

Discussing the announcement, Razgatlioglu said: “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. 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. So, a big thank you to Yamaha Motor Company, Yamaha Motor Europe, Yamaha Motor Turkiye, the Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK team and especially to my crew, who have all worked so hard for me.”

DOSOLI SAYS: “We made what we felt was an offer that properly reflected Toprak’s value as a rider”

Razgatlioglu’s future had been up for debate with his contract expiring at the end of the 2023 season, after he signed a two-year deal to cover the 2022 and 2023 seasons previously. With his future now lying away from Yamaha, Andrea Dosoli, Road Racing Manager at Yamaha Motor Europe, said: “We will be sorry to see Toprak leave Yamaha at the end of this season. We wanted to continue what has been an incredibly successful partnership, with the obvious highlight being the triple crown of rider, manufacturer, and team world titles that we won together in 2021. We made what we felt was an offer that properly reflected Toprak’s value as a rider and an ambassador for Yamaha, as well as the competitiveness of our racing package and our racing strategy within the WorldSBK platform.

“However, as the negotiations progressed it became apparent to both parties that Toprak is motivated to embrace a new challenge in 2024 and we respect his decision. Although our paths will diverge at the end of the year, we are now fully focused on the battle for the 2023 WorldSBK title, which resumes shortly at Misano. Finally, I would like to thank Toprak on behalf of Yamaha but also personally, for his invaluable contribution to our WorldSBK project. His first World Championship title in 2021 was a just reward for him but also for all the people who, since we returned to WorldSBK in 2016, have worked so hard to make this project a success. It is a memory that everyone at Yamaha will cherish. We wish Toprak every success for the future but, for now, we have a job to finish.”

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Source: WorldSBK.com

The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship field heads to the Adriatic coast and the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” for Round 4 of the 2023 campaign at the start of June, and now is the perfect opportunity to take a trip down memory lane. The first visit is way back to 2001 as Troy Bayliss and Ben Bostrom battled it out for victory on their Ducati 996 R machines to take a home win for Ducati. The pair were separated by just 0.482s at the end of the 25-lap fight. Watch the full race for free by clicking the video at the top of this article!

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With the Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round coming up for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship paddock, the small break between rounds is the perfect chance to take a look back at some of the best moments from 2023 using the post-round Unfiltered videos. The Australian Round was a dramatic affair with mixed conditions throughout to create an unforgettable round, while the Indonesian Round a week later featured Xavi Vierge (Team HRC) claiming his maiden podium and fighting talk from the frontrunners. As WorldSBK returned to Europe, so did the drama. The Dutch Round Unfiltered featured Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) and Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) their tactics to fight Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) while the Catalunya Round had fallout from Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) colliding in Spain. Watch all the incredible behind-the-scenes moments from WorldSBK in 2023 with the videos at the top of this article!

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The Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” is the next venue for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship for the fifth round of the 2023 campaign, the Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round. Before then, why not catch up on some of the incredible action WorldSBK has delivered so far this year? Relive videos for the first rounds of the campaign are available to watch in one easy place at the top of this article, with all the drama from Indonesia, Australia, the Netherlands and Catalunya in one place for you to catch up on.

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Source: WorldSBK.com

While the majority of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship field headed to the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” for a two-day test recently, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) and teammate Alex Lowes opted not to go with KRT sending a smaller team with test rider Florian Marino. On Thursday, 18^th May, Rea and Lowes were back on track at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto for a one-day test.

With the forecast heading into the Misano test featuring rain and cooler track conditions, the two KRT riders opted to skip the test to be able to test their ZX-10RR machines in hotter track conditions, which was possible on Thursday at Jerez. In a post on Instagram, Rea said they got the 50-degree track temperatures they were after while he was also able to complete a race simulation at the end of the day.

With track temperatures where both Rea and Lowes needed them to test as WorldSBK heads into a busy summer period, starting at Misano at the start of June before heading to Donington Park, Imola and Most in July. With four rounds coming up in the next two months at the height of summer, KRT will be hoping their one-day Jerez test, including where they did a race simulation in warmer conditions, will prove beneficial to the team and the ZX-10RR as they go in search of their first win of the 2023 campaign.

Speaking after the Misano test, where Marino completed one day, KRT Team Manager, Guim Roda, said: “Testing is so important, especially when things do not work out as planned, and especially because we don’t give up. In 2019 Alvaro Bautista won at the first four rounds, but we won the title. Of course, we are in a worse position than 2019, we are not naive, but the concept is to never give up until game is over. Not winning empowers us to work really hard to come back stronger. We need to explore all the areas to find the way to fight to win every race. That’s the target. We could not finish some upgrades we were working on with the bike, so we will try to find other options to test before Misano. We are especially trying to find more than 45-degree tarmac conditions to test on. The track temperature at Misano was not enough to work with items we wanted to work on with Alex and Jonny but checking the functionality of some software adjustments has been very useful.”

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Source: WorldSBK.com

There was a first-time winner last time out in the FIM Supersport World Championship as Bahattin Sofuoglu (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) took his maiden victory at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and he will be looking to add more to his collection as the season progresses. With his first win in the bag, we take a look at some of the riders whose first victories in WorldSSP propelled them on to bigger things including World Championship success. Can Sofuoglu follow in their footsteps?

SOUFOGLU’S FIRST OF 43: victory at Assen

Five-time Champion Kenan Sofuoglu claimed his first win in WorldSSP at Assen in 2006, his first full season in the Championship. He won by more than four seconds ahead of Kevin Curtain for the first of his 43 WorldSSP wins and it sent him on a path to greatness. In ten full seasons of WorldSSP, Sofuoglu, who now manages Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK), Can Oncu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and nephew Bahattin Sofuoglu, went on to win five Championships, 43 races and claimed 85 podiums.

DAVIES PULLS CLEAR AT ASSEN: same venue as Sofuoglu

Before entering WorldSBK and becoming a three-time runner-up, Chaz Davies made his name in WorldSSP. In two full seasons, he claimed six victories which all came in his title-winning campaign in 2011 where he won six out of 12 races. The first came at Assen, like Sofuoglu, where he blew away the opposition to win by more than seven seconds ahead of Fabien Foret and that was followed up by wins at Monza, Aragon, Silverstone, Nurburgring and Portimao as he was crowned World Champion.

HOME VICTORY: Michael van der Mark takes stunning home win

The first win is always special for a rider but the first win coming on home soil must feel even sweeter and Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) can vouch for this. In his second WorldSSP campaign, he took victory at Assen by 9.5 seconds ahead Florian Marino for his first of six wins and, like Davies a few years before, it led to a title in 2014. His Assen win was followed up with victories at Donington Park, Sepang, Portimao, Jerez and Lusail before he moved to WorldSBK with Honda; the manufacturer he took the WorldSSP title with.

STARTING 2023 IN STUNNING FORM: one win leads to another for Bulega

Ducati returned to WorldSSP in 2022 and were the only manufacturer not to claim victory, although not without trying. 17 podiums were scored in 2022 including seven second place finishes, but the first win since 2005 eluded them. That was until the 2023 Australian Round, the season opener, when Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team), took victory in Race 1 at Phillip Island. This was followed up by Race 2 victory and then the double at Assen as well. In total, he has five wins from eight races this season; can he follow in the footsteps of Sofuoglu, Davies and van der Mark and be crowned World Champion after his breakthrough win?

HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Turkish youngsters finding form…

Oncu has been in WorldSSP since 2020 and had been edging closer to victory ever since, and his first win finally came in Race 1 at Mandalika this year. He was unable to follow that up with Race 2 victory, or in Race 1 at Assen, and he missed the Catalunya Round through injury. When he returns, he’ll be hoping his first win was a breakthrough and leads to more. Bahattin Sofuoglu took his maiden podium and win in the same round when he finished third in Race 1 in Barcelona and won Race 2, returning the Sofuoglu name to the top step of the podium. He showed strong pace towards the end of his maiden WorldSSP campaign, so will he be able to repeat his victory as the season progresses?

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Four rounds are done in the 2023 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship and although there’s a break until the next round at the start of June, action continued as a Supported Test was undertaken at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli”. With the circuit, a stone’s throw from the Adriatic Sea, hosting the fifth round of the season, it was all-important in terms of dialling setup in and trying to improve pace with new parts, so what were the key takeaways from two days of testing action?

BAUTISTA VS RAZGATLIOGLU: race pace tells a tale

Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was in a league of his own in the previous two rounds at Assen and in Barcelona, strolling to a triple in each. His race pace was once again strong at the Misano Test, where he was lapping consistently in the low 1’34s and 1’33s, faster than his pace from last year’s full races. However, Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) was also fast, with Bautista calling the Turk’s race pace as “amazing”, with him able to get down to a very similar pace as Bautista. It’s two all in the win tally at Misano between them over the last two years, so who will make it three – or perhaps four – first? For a full, in-depth analysis of their pace, click here.

HONDA RIDERS’ CONTRASTING EMOTIONS: Vierge’s joy is Lecuona’s disappointment

So often, they’ve echoed the same feedback in development and been close on track, but the Misano Test saw Xavi Vierge (Team HRC) and teammate Iker Lecuona share two very different thoughts on the latest new parts. Starting positively, Vierge stated that perhaps a “new base setup” had been established, with a positive reaction to Honda’s new overslung swingarm. On the contrary, Lecuona didn’t hold back, with the Valencian stating that he “expected more” and that he “can’t be happy”, seemingly at a loss, hailing the test as “very difficult.” Team boss Leon Camier stated the new parts helped Vierge “quite a lot”, although for Lecuona, the feeling was a bit better but lap time didn’t really improve. A careful analysis is needed, but Camier maintained that a step had been made, but that the bike is still needing to be improved in all areas.

SYKES IS BACK AT BMW: a positive return for the #66

It was a bright return to the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team for 2013 World Champion Tom Sykes, as the Yorkshireman was back to grinning ways at Misano. A consistent pace saw him finish as top factory BMW on day one, with a fast lap time but also a decent pace. Although teammate Scott Redding’s pace may have been a bit better over the course of long race distance, Sykes made gains throughout the opening day and was able to run well in the 1’34s. The atmosphere was also good within the BMW camp, with team principal Shaun Muir praising Sykes’ return and although no commitment can be made in the future, in the words of Muir himself, “the old Tom is there”, so it remains to be seen how the race rounds themselves go. For an in-depth look at Sykes’ comeback to BMW, read a full round-up here.

SURPRISES: Baldassarri and Gerloff feature at the front

It was a positive test for both Lorenzo Baldassarri (GMT94 Yamaha) and Garrett Gerloff (Bonovo Action BMW), as they were able to showcase some serious speed across the two days of action. Starting with ‘Iron Balda’, the 26-year-old Italian was up inside the top five at points on day one before finishing P11 at the end of the day, whilst on day two, he improved his race pace and outright one-lap speed to finish fourth and second Yamaha, behind fellow countryman Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK). For Gerloff, he was top BMW rider and setting a strong pace, completing the top five on day one. He set times in the high 1’34s and low 1’35s, with that pace good enough for the top ten last year. Finishing the test as top BMW overall, Gerloff has plenty of information for the round to build on a decent showing in Barcelona.

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Source: WorldSBK.com

The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship is a third of the way down after the Prosecco DOC Catalunya Round and 2011 Champion Carlos Checa recently reviewed the season so far in an interview at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The Spanish rider, who was the last Ducati Champion in WorldSBK before Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)’s success last year, spoke about the 2023 campaign, WorldSBK this season and Bautista’s season so far.

CHECA ON 2023: “It’s very exciting…”

2011 Champion Checa visited the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as he took in the stunning atmosphere and incredible track action in Spain, with the Catalunya Round hosting the fourth round of the 2023 season. He watched Bautista take a hat-trick on home soil as he extended his Championship lead, as well as thrilling fights and dramatic collisions behind him, as well as the other races he has followed from home.

Reflecting on the 2023 campaign so far, Checa said: “I’m feeling very well, I’m enjoying my life and especially the racing from outside. I have the opportunity to be in Barcelona and to follow all the races. I try to see every race. It’s very exciting. I think it’s a very well-balanced sport even if, now, Bautista is taking a clear advantage. I like these kinds of bikes, the programme during the weekend with different classes and I think it’s a good Championship where the performance is increasing every year. Even now, Bautista is one step in front.”

BAUTISTA’S 2023 CAMPAIGN: “It’s a pleasure to watch him riding like that!”

Bautista, in 2022, became the first Ducati Champion in WorldSBK since Checa won the title in 2011 and his form in 2023 so far, with 11 wins from 12 races, has put him in pole position for a second consecutive WorldSBK title. Ducati introduced a new model of the Panigale V4 R in 2023 and Bautista has already ridden it to so much success in four rounds this season and Checa commented on his compatriot’s results this season and how he is getting the most out of the bike.

Checa said: “He’s doing his talking on the track, it’s quite clear. He is a rider who, from the beginning, felt very good with this bike. Even in 2019 when he was leading the Championship and, in the end, he lost it and then moved to Honda. This year, he demonstrated that he’s integrated into this bike perfectly. When he returned last year, he was probably struggling a little bit and he had a clear advantage maybe in acceleration and speed. For me, this year, he made a great evolution because, with his turning and braking, he’s riding even better than his competitors and taking a little bit of advantage under acceleration, but also this is because he’s turning quite well. I saw some races, especially at Assen, where it seems like he’s doing less distance and turning so well with the bike. It’s a pleasure to watch him riding like that.”

WHO JOINS BAUTISTA IN 2024? Checa’s criteria laid out

With Bautista putting talk about his future behind him by signing a new contract with Ducati for 2024, talk about who will join him has started. Current teammate, Michael Ruben Rinaldi, will be aiming to keep the seat for a fourth season in 2024 however several other riders have expressed their desire for a factory seat, including Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) and Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team). Checa gave his thoughts on who could join Bautista next season and, while he didn’t name any names, did explain the decision-making process.

He said: “All the riders are quite good; this is something related to the team and maybe Alvaro has something to say. Especially the team, or Ducati, will decide which one they prefer. The season is long with many races to come and the riders who take more results from now until the end probably will have a strong reason for the team to decide which one. I don’t know what Ducati’s or the team’s priorities are, the standings should do the talking. But there’s always other conditions, having a teammate that can help Alvaro or not bother him like until now is positive, and also that does good work for the team. But if there’s someone who stands out after Bautista in the standings, I think they will be the chosen one.”

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Source: WorldSBK.com