Although it is not so common, there are cases of SBK champions pilots who have made the leap to MotoGP even though we are accustomed just to the contrary. The next one in trying will be Toprak Razgatlioglu, which will follow the path that Bayliss, Spies, Foggarty, Edwards, Toosaland, Hodgson or Russell.
There have also been other pilots who, without being SBK champions, have made the leap to MotoGP and curiously one of them, Carl Crutchlow, is the pilot who after passing through the WSBK best result obtained, in addition to being, along with Edwards, the one who had the most opportunities.
But the statistic is stubborn and says that SBK champions pilots, who have achieved a world title (not races), have only achieved two career victories and have not been able to fight hand in hand with MotoGP giants. These two victories are in the hands of Troy Bayliss and a mythical victory in 2006 running as a substitute for Sete Gibernau in Valencia, and Ben Spies who was perhaps the pilot with more talent to have been able to achieve the milestone, but to which luck and injuries did not accompany him.
So unlike MotoGP pilots who have made the leap to the WSBK, no MotoGP champions but pilots in general who have achieved victories and titles, the opposite path seems quite complicated. There is nothing more to see how Biaggi, Kocinscki, Czech or Bautista have imposed their law.
SBK champions had it complicated a lot of time, but now the thing is different
It is true that for a long time, in the 500 2T era, move from a four -stroke engine derived from street to a rabid 2t with tires that were not even similar, and also at a time where there were whom the brands trusted him the ones who gave the best performance, complicated the thing. But MotoGP with the 4T format has been more than two decades, and all those who have tried have failed.
Perhaps Toprak, who is being tremendously dominating in the WSBK, is able to successfully make the reverse path and, in a certain part, he may have some advantage that other Superbike champions did not have. And it is that Razgatlioglu will arrive at a time when Yamaha will have important concessions that would allow, on paper, carry out more normal training, in addition to release the V4 engine that is expected to give them the competitiveness they lack.
To this we must add that both in its time with the Yamaha R1 and now with the BMW M1000RR is being able to bring out a competitiveness that no one has and that, in the face of 2027, the balance will be balanced with the change of regulation and pneumatic. Even so, it will be difficult to see Razgatlioglu break the “curse.”
