The 2024 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship may be over but the final pieces of the puzzle regarding 2025 are slotting into place and it’s good news for the Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team, who will double their efforts and field two bikes for the forthcoming season. Their riders will be a mixture of wiser experience and youthful exuberance, as 2014 Moto2™ World Champion Tito Rabat and WorldSSP race winner Bahattin Sofuoglu spearhead Sandro Carusi’s new-look team for next year.

RABAT’S NEXT MOVE: a third manufacturer for the 2014 Moto2™ Champion

Rabat first came over to the WorldSBK paddock in 2021, following many successful years in the MotoGP™ World Championship paddock which yielded numerous top ten finishes in the premier class as well as 13 wins, 36 podiums and one Moto2™ World Championship. Debuting with Ducati and achieving top ten finishes in his first season before repeating those achievements and getting points aboard the Puccetti Kawasaki in 2024, the 35-year-old will embrace a new bike, a new team but with same goals and desires as previous years.

Tito Rabat looks forwards to the switch of manufacturers, stating: “I’m excited to join the Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team. I think the Yamaha YZF-R1 has a setup that is easier to define than other bikes, which means even a private team can be competitive. Our first goal will be the top twelve, but we’ll see how things go during the season. I can’t wait to start the winter tests and compete in the 2025 Championship.  I want to thank Carusi for this opportunity, and hope to able to repay the team with good results.”

TURKISH REPRESENTATION DOUBLES: Sofuoglu follows in uncle Kenan’s footsteps and looks up to Toprak

It's a pleasing circularity for Bahattin Sofuoglu, who raced with Sandro Carusi’s team during his WorldSSP300 years, where he was able to win on four occasions and be on the podium a total of eight times. He moved up to WorldSSP with MV Agusta for the European rounds of 2022 and impressed with three top fives in the last four rounds of the year before going on to take the manufacturer’s most recent win in Barcelona’s Race 2 of 2023. Remaining with the team since until splitting by mutual agreement in the final rounds of 2024, Sofuoglu’s move to Yamaha in WorldSBK will make for one of the most exciting prospects of the season.

Graduating to the top class in the paddock and adding to the Turkish presence on the WorldSBK grid, Bahattin Sofuoglu is eager to start his World Superbike journey: “I’m really pleased to be able to race with my former team again. We had some really good, successful seasons and podiums in WorldSSP300 and now we’re back together in the reigning class. My plan is to be ready as soon as possible as I embark on this exciting new chapter in my career. I’ve started riding a production YZF-R1 so that I can build confidence as I wait for the first tests. I want to say a big thank you to Sandro Carusi and Yamaha”.

CARUSI SPEAKS OF REFRESHED FEEL: Sofuoglu “promising youngster”, Rabat from rival to core member

Sandro Carusi, team boss, stated his delight at being able to expand the team’s presence in the World’s fastest and most popular production-based Championship, saying: “I can finally confirm that we’ll be fielding two riders next season. The experienced Tito Rabat, who is also an ex-Moto2™ World Champion and will be joined by promising youngster Bahattin Sofuoglu. Tito has been our rival in recent seasons and so I’m pleased that he’ll now be part of our team. We began working with Bahattin in 2020 when he was part of our WorldSSP300 Championship team. Over those two seasons, we were often on the podium and I always hoped that our paths would again cross one day. This will be our first season with two riders in WorldSBK and so there will also be changes in terms of our technical staff, with new entries as well as familiar faces. I’m sure that we can have a really close-knit work group in 2025.”

THE TEAM’S WorldSBK HISTORY: top six potential in years gone by

The team’s presence on the WorldSBK grid dates back to 2022 when Italian Roberto Tamburini moved up to the class and demonstrated some solid rides, with a best of P10 in Barcelona but a total of ten points-scoring finishes. 2023 saw them bet on BSB champion of 2022 Brad Ray, who elevated the team to a memorable top six finish at Imola in 2023. This would remain the team’s best performance to-date as 2024 wasn’t able to see Ray fight for the top six as he’d have previously hoped.

Get ready for 2025 and cheer Rabat and Sofuoglu from wherever you are with the WorldSBK VideoPass!