Silly season in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship gets earlier and earlier every season and, with most of the grid up for renewal at the end of the 2025 campaign, the talks are beginning and the rumours swirling already. One rider whose future is always being spoken about is Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team). The reigning Champion has always made it clear he has a MotoGP™ dream and his manager and mentor, Kenan Sofuoglu, addressed talk about the #1’s future on Friday at the Pirelli Dutch Round.

SOFUOGLU ON THE FUTURE: “There’s a possibility there’s a BMW option for us”

As a showman in WorldSBK, Razgatlioglu is always performing stunts and gaining attention not just from WorldSBK fans, but motorsport fans as a whole. That means, when his contract is up for renewal, there is always lots of speculation about it as ‘El Turco’ has stated before he always searches for a challenge. After winning the title with Yamaha in 2021, he moved to BMW for 2024 and claimed the title for the German brand after inking a two-year contract. That contract ends at the end of the 2025 season.

That means rumours are ramping up about where Razgatlioglu’s future lies and five-time WorldSSP Champion Sofuoglu spoke about his plans for Razgatlioglu: “We’re working on it. Of course, Toprak did a great season last year with BMW and this year is still going very well. I want his focus to be on the title because the first year was very difficult us, I want Toprak to show real performance as he did last year; I’m happy with Portimao, we saw the hungry Toprak and he did a great job there. He’s going to be strong here, maybe not as strong as Portimao as I understand, but Toprak is Toprak and will never give up. About his future, Toprak and also the motorcycle world, expect to see him in MotoGP™. He has interest from MotoGP™ teams with good brands. This weekend, I have one meeting about this or that I’ve done. I told the company that ‘first, I listen to Toprak, and I offer him something, do you have interest in this if I can bring it to you?’

“Toprak got very excited, he’s very excited about it. He loves it and says, ‘please bring me this’. I had the meeting with the company, I feel that they’re interested in the project. We need some time to see. On the other hand, with BMW, we’re very happy. BMW’s not in MotoGP™. There’s a possibility that there’s a BMW option for us. I brought something like that into Toprak and he loved it. If the company also agrees, I think soon you’ll hear the news for Toprak. I think it’ll take minimum one month to be sure, because if it’s not going to work, I have to look for another route. Toprak has opportunities to go to MotoGP™ or stay in WorldSBK. I have a great idea; I believe it will work very well. It’s still 50-50. I said what my project is. If the company likes it, we’ll see. It’s kind of a very mixed project."

RESPONDING TO RUMOURS: Sofuoglu, Escamez on Honda links

One rumour that’s been floated around is joining Honda for 2026 in WorldSBK before moving to MotoGP™ for 2027 when new regulations and Pirelli tyres are introduced. On this idea, Sofuoglu said: “I definitely have a different idea, believe me! I have something that’s not just Honda, it’s another brand very interested in Toprak for MotoGP™. I can’t give more because it’s not fair for us, the company, or our brand that we’re racing for now; we’re happy with them. It’s on our mind that maybe we continue with them, there’s an option. We are working on something which Toprak wants to have and a lot of fans want to see. We are working on some exciting challenges; soon, we’ll say the news.”

This rumour was also put to Honda HRC’s Team Manager, Jose Escamez, on Friday in FP2, who said: “There is nothing yet. Maybe there could be a chance and we will need to consider what we’re doing next year, but they’re just rumours that the media brought up with no sense. We’ll look forward to making our plan for 2026, but there is nothing yet. Just rumours that the media brought up without foundations.”

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