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The events of the last 24 hours have added considerable fuel to the fire of the rider market situation regarding Toprak Razgatlioglu. Indeed, the words declared to Speedweek by Kenan Sofuoglu have lit the fuse about what will be the future of his client.
The cause of everything is that Toprak Razgatlioglu, through his manager, has made it known that he wants to go to MotoGP next year, and for BMW that is no small piece of news. For its part, the Munich manufacturer wished to make a simple communication about it, trying to play down the affair. Let's make things clear: BMW has not issued a press release. Upon our precise request regarding the manufacturer's position, it has issued such a communication, namely that it does not wish to participate in these speculations, adding that Toprak has a contract in place for next year as well.
It therefore becomes logical to think that BMW will do everything to keep its top rider in-house even in 2025, enforcing his contract and considering, among other things, Toprak's image role outside the racing world.
On the other side, however, there is Kenan Sofuoglu, who has always managed to look after Toprak's interests to the best of his ability over the years, always achieving his targets. From Kawasaki he brought him to Yamaha and then from Yamaha to BMW where the Turk is currently fighting for the world title.
There may now be a new challenge on the horizon, represented by MotoGP. As anticipated yesterday, Honda has made an offer and on the table could also be one from Yamaha, which next season will see the exit of Lin Jarvis to make way for Paolo Pavesio, who knows Toprak well given the Turk's past in Yamaha Superbike with Crescent.
At this point the question arises: what will Toprak's choice be for 2025?
At the moment we do not know and perhaps Toprak does not know either. What we can assume, however, is that Toprak has always been interested in a factory team and not satellite teams. Besides, it is his history that teaches this, as he himself told us a couple of years ago in this interview, just before the start of the World Championship in Aragon: "I prefer my R1 to a satellite Yamaha MotoGP bike."
On this we think he has not changed his mind: should Toprak want to make the jump to MotoGP, he will certainly want to do so by entering through the front door without having to go through satellite teams. The situation is incandescent and the only thing to do is see how everything pans out.
