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Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) heads into the 2025 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship as the reigning Champion, while BMW narrowly missed out on the Teams’ and Manufacturers’ Championships after a historic year for the German manufacturer. Now, with ‘El Turco’ more experienced on the M 1000 RR, teammate Michael van der Mark getting closer to the front and with a target on their back, will they be able to taste more glory in 2025?

CAN RAZGATLIOGLU RETAIN THE #1? The goal is clear…

Now a two-time Champion, Razgatlioglu previous ran the #1 in the 2022 season after winning the title with Yamaha the previous year. He was unable to defend the title that year and reverted back to his traditional #54 for 2023 onwards. Now, with a second title under his belt, the Turkish superstar has gone back to the #1 and will aim to retain the title with the special number. He’d become the sixth rider to do so after Fred Merkel (1989), Doug Polen (1992), Carl Fogarty (1995, 1999), Jonathan Rea (2016-2020) and Alvaro Bautista (2023). However, Razgatlioglu missed out on the Jerez test and needed special gloves for the Portimao test due to a broken finger, potentially putting him on the back foot ahead of Australia.

“Normally, I feel a little bit of pressure when I use the #1,” begun Razgatlioglu at the BMW season launch in Berlin when talking about the #1 plate and goals for 2025. “Normally I don’t like the #1 but I use it for BMW because this is a result of teamwork; we got the world title and we’re World Champions. The #1 looks nice with the BMW – I hope we keep it at the end of the year, this is important for me! Last year, I wasn’t thinking about any targets, but I did an incredible job during the year. This year, I’m just thinking about Phillip Island and some races I didn’t win; I need to win them now, but especially at Phillip Island, I’ll try to win there.”

VAN DER MARK FIGHTING AT THE FRONT: consistent podium target outlined

After a couple of injury-addled campaigns, van der Mark was at his best toward the end of 2024 as he took a wet-weather victory at Magny-Cours to return to the top step of the rostrum before he ended the year on the podium with his teammate Razgatlioglu. The Dutchman will be hoping that form continues into 2025 and he’s already outlined an ambitious target for the upcoming season as he looks to help BMW reach more silverware.

Also talking about the BMW presentation in Germany, van der Mark stated: “I think we want to start where we finished the season and that’s on the podium. We had a strong 2024 and a really good end to it. With the new M 1000 RR, we improved in a lot of areas. We should be fighting for podiums from Round 1. We built a bit of momentum last year, also on my side, like I said, we finished the season strong. With everything new and improved, we should be there from the start. I have a lot of confidence. I think we’re stronger than last year.”

THE TEAM GOALS: aiming to the Teams’ and Manufacturers’ Championships…

After missing out on the Teams’ Championship in 2024 by just 66 points to the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati, BMW will be aiming to secure that trophy in 2025 and, with Razgatligolu and van der Mark at the helm, they will feel like they’re in a prime position to close the gap on the factory Ducati team in the standings as they look to add more silverware to their collection after a trophy-laden 2024 campaign. While BMW were close to the Teams’ title last year, they were also very close to securing their first Manufacturers’ Championship title too. BMW scored 606 points across their 12 races while Ducati just beat them to the trophy with 644 in a fight that lasted all season long before the Italian brand just came out on top.

Team Principal Shaun Muir discussed the possibility of winning more Championships in 2025, saying at the team launch: “I think Toprak’s goals are to continue as he finished in 2024, which is fantastic. We’re so proud of the team and the group behind us. We’ve come so far as a team, a family and a project. To complete the Manufacturers’ and Riders’ Championships would be a dream for 2025. Personally, I really believe Mickey can be a contributor to the Manufacturers’ points. A top three or four for Mickey would be sensational.”

UPGRADES TO CHALLENGE FOR MORE TROPHIES: detailing the changes to the M 1000 RR

For 2025, BMW have introduced a new version of the M 1000 RR featuring upgrades to the aerodynamics and the chassis, plus internal changes, to help retain the Riders’ Championship as well as go for the Teams’ and Manufacturers’ titles too. BMW Motorrad Technical Director, Chris Gonschor, explained the changes to the bike when talking at the season launch.

He stated: “With the new M 1000 RR, we have a newly homologated road bike as the base for sports activities. This gives us the perfect platform to improve even over last year’s package. The new M 1000 RR has an optimised engine: on the street bike, it’s six horsepower more. This means there are changes in the engine which improve, and make room for improvement, to gain more power, durability, linearity. On the aerodynamic side, we have a new fairing, so it’ll be improved on this side. Electronics wise, the new bike has some new sensors so we gain some potential in this area and on the chassis side, we can always improve.”

NO SECOND BMW TEAM: how will that impact the German brand?

Since 2021, BMW have had multiple teams on the WorldSBK grid through the Bonovo Action BMW team, which in 2024 fielded Garrett Gerloff and Scott Redding. For 2025, the Bonovo squad have gone down to one bike and switched to Ducati, meaning the only BMW machines on the grid will be Razgatlioglu and van der Mark’s efforts. The manufacturers discussed how this would impact them in 2025, citing the test team as a reason why they may not be so impacted by the loss of two races bikes.

On BMW having two bikes rather than four on the grid, Gonschor added: “I’m not afraid of the situation. We have two strong race bikes on the grid, and we have the test team in the background so we can do the work we need to do. We can do more work with the test team, and harder, so we gain the information and the test items from the test team. The race team will receive the feedback and the parts verified and optimised and having just two bikes on the grid is also a chance because we can focus on two high-class riders and, in the end, one rider can win a race and the Championship. Both of them are capable of doing the job and I’m looking forward to seeing both riders on the podium; it doesn’t matter in which ranking.”

CAN IT GET ANY CLOSER? Find out whether BMW can add more silverware to their collection in 2025 using the WorldSBK VideoPass!