When the defense of the number one begins in the fairing, the goal is always put on the back of those who carry it. He is the pilot to beat, everyone wants to be faster than him and the pressure is increasing, so keeping it is always very complicated. But also, in the WSBK, the regulation seeks maximum equality and that sometimes ends up generating complicated situations to digest.
If just over a year ago it was Álvaro Bautista who was directly harmed by the regulation that sought equality, now it is Toprak Razgatlioglu, which, like Spanish in 2024, defends the title, who is suffering and much with his BMW S1000RR.
And it is that with motorcycles as different as those found in the WSBK, getting similar benefits based on regulations is not easy. For that, concessions are granted to some manufacturers that are losing as the results arrive, and that is just the point where BMW is now.
That Toprak was so insultingly fast last year, with his motorcycle he has led to more consequences than number 1 in his fairing, and one of them is that the concessions that the German brand had have been diminishing. Perhaps the most important was the one that allowed certain licenses with the chassis they are now noticing.
And in general terms, in this first Toprak race it has not been the competitive that would have liked. He got a second position in the first race, avoided the disaster of a direct impact on the superpole Race, and had to leave in the third breaking the dome of his motorcycle.
Defending number one has never been simple and with the wsbk regulations less
A bad weekend in terms of points, but worse as sensations and more when we have seen a clear domain of Ducati that BMW’s has not hesitated to point out ensuring that “It is not normal, this is a Ducati glass.” If we look at the tables, with the exception of the Turk, the head pilots have been Ducati pilots, but the reality is that the situation is not excessive from last year.
The difference is that in 2024, Toprak was ahead of that squad and now in this race he has been fully involved, suffering more than the account. It has been so much that in his statements he threatened to leave the category: “I hope it does not continue that way because nobody is enjoying this. If the Superbike continue like this in the future, I am not thinking of competing here anymore. ”
A few words hot by the Turk, who deliberately forget that this situation has already lived pilots such as Jonathan Rea and Álvaro Bautista, and that he benefited from it. And it is that both were much more competitive than the rest of the brands, as Toprak did in 2024, taking more juice from their machines, which in turn caused the restrictions to be arriving.
Now both Toprak and BMW must focus on the 33 races that remain defense of the title. 11 rounds to recover lost time and with test in between that they will help them find the way. If something is clear is that Toprak never surrenders.
