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Toprak Razgatlıoğlu moves to MotoGP in 2026 – comeback at Yamaha with Pramac

Toprak Razgatlıoğlu will make the long-awaited move to MotoGP in 2026, and it has now been officially confirmed.  The two-time Superbike World Champion from Turkey has signed a two-year contract with the Prima Pramac Yamaha Team.  After a brief but successful intermezzo with BMW, the 27-year-old is thus returning to the Yamaha family - but this time on the big stage of Grand Prix racing.

Impressive Superbike career with two world championship titles

Toprak Razgatlıoğlu has established himself as one of the most influential riders in the Superbike World Championship in recent years.  Following his debut in the Superstock 600 class in 2014 – which he heralded with a victory in a single outing at Magny-Cours – he clinched the STK600 title in 2015 with five wins in seven races.  In the STK1000 class that followed, he finished runner-up in 2017 and thus made the leap into the Superbike World Championship.

He collected his first podiums with Kawasaki Puccetti Racing and celebrated his first victories in 2019.  However, his big breakthrough came with Yamaha: in 2021, he won the World Championship title on the R1 with 13 wins and 29 podiums.  Two years later, he surprisingly switched to the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team and won the title there again in 2024 – despite an injury break and missing two race weekends.  With 18 wins and 27 podiums in just 30 races, he wrote another chapter in his success story.

 

Farewell with ambition: Razgatlıoğlu wants to bring BMW one more title

Although he will move up to MotoGP in 2026, Razgatlıoğlu is still focused on the current Superbike season.  With six wins and eleven podiums from 15 races, he is currently in second place in the championship behind Ducati rider Nicolo Bulega.  “For me personally, another title would be the perfect farewell to the Superbike World Championship,” he said.  BMW is also wistful, but respects his wish: “It’s no secret that we would have liked to keep Toprak,” explained Head of Motorsport Sven Blusch.  “But we respect his dream of switching to MotoGP.”

 

Pramac instead of factory team: Why Yamaha is relying on a satellite team

Razgatlıoğlu will not ride with the Yamaha factory team in 2026, but with Prima Pramac Yamaha – albeit with full factory support.  The M1 available to him is said to be technically almost identical to the machines of Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins.  Pramac is therefore more than just a satellite team – it is becoming a springboard for Yamaha talent in the premier class.

Yamaha Race Director Paolo Pavesio justified the move with a long-term development plan: “Toprak is the most successful Yamaha rider of all time in the Superbike World Championship.  His move to MotoGP is a homecoming and a new challenge at the same time.  We believe that 2026 is the right time to take this step, which many fans have been asking for.”

 

Balance sheet of an exceptional rider

Razgatlıoğlu leaves the Superbike World Championship with impressive figures: 63 wins, 264 podiums, 237 race starts, 20 pole positions and 53 fastest race laps.  This puts him in the top 5 of the series’ all-time leaderboard – and he is just 27 years old.

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