Petronas: interest in Toprak Razgatlioglu / MotoGP of Turkey

The new ARAMCO Sky VR46 MotoGP Team is expected to publicly confirm the planned collaboration with Ducati for the next three years today. Petronas-Yamaha will announce a three-year partnership extension with Yamaha through the end of 2024. Gresini Racing came forward a week ago and announced the new two-year deal with Ducati. This is a lot of news that SPEEDWEEK.com announced exclusively on May 27th. They also mean: Suzuki and Yamaha will not be equipping their MotoGP customer team for the next two years!

As recently as May, the prevailing opinion was that Rossi would ally with Yamaha or Suzuki, Gresini with Aprilia. These confirmed collaborations are now a big step by Ducati, because next year, as in 2017 and 2018, the factory will offer no fewer than eight out of 24 bikes on the slopes.

However, some driver positions are still open. Petronas Yamaha will likely have to look for a new teammate at Morbidelli. Valentino Rossi no longer believes he can return to the top of the world. Rossi has not scored in the top ten since Misano in September and has not celebrated a victory since the Dutch TT Championship at Assen 2017.

That’s why Petronas Yamaha is watching. Red Bull KTM rider Ajo Moto2 Raul Fernandez was a problem initially, but the fast novice is still in the Moto2 World Championship. Then Turkish Yamaha Superbike rider Toprak Razgatlioglu was brought up for discussion. Rossi met him three weeks ago at the World Superbike Race in Misano and spoke to him.

But Toprak, coming from the Red Bull Rookies Cup, is not expected to move to MotoGP in 2022. Andrea Dusoli, Yamaha’s team boss in the World Superbike Championship, does not want to dispense with the Turkish quick man. Because it should hand Yamaha’s first SBK title since Ben Spies 2009 in 2022. Without the current World Championship runner-up, now 20 points behind Johnny Rea, Yamaha would not have had an SBK title candidate next year. Gerloff, who is now entering his second season at SBK, is not expected to win until 2023.

“I want to win the World Superbike Championship first,” said former Supersport Series World Champion Kenan Sofuoglu. As a longtime Red Bull athlete, Razgatlioglu was unable to switch to Petronas-Yamaha without approval, because the bikes advertised there are for the Monster competitor.

This may have played a role in his decision not to replace Morbidelli in Assen with Petronas-Yamaha next weekend. In his place, Texan Garrett Gerloff, who jumped in the Valencia GP on Friday, was signed in place of Rossi when the Italian was unable to show a negative coronavirus test on Friday.

As the only MotoGP factory team, Aprilia still has a place to deliver for 2022. The Italians are doing everything they can to sell Andrea Dovizioso’s contract after two Tests.

Gresini Racing will compete with Fabio Di Giannantonio and Moto2 World Champion Enea Bastianini. The Moto2 world champion and current MotoGP rookie would have agreed to Gresini a lot of pain and suffering if the team picked Aprilia. In this case he asked for a wage of 1 million euros!

KTM-Tech3 has signed Remy Gardner, and Petrucci has good prospects for a second place finish in 2022. Lecuona has made many mistakes in the past twelve months.

By the way: Tech3-KTM will continue to operate without a Red Bull sponsorship in 2022 and will retain the KTM design from 2021.

Petronas-Yamaha SRT has Franco Morbidelli under contract for 2022, after which he will acquire at least one factory Yamaha from 2021 – with the technology level from the 2021 World Cup Final.

Pedro Acosta is in great demand

The outstanding performance of the only talented 17-year-old KTM Moto3 Pedro Acosta (four wins this season already!) stirs the desires of the competition. As a rookie, he’s the world championship leader with 145 to 90 points (ahead of Sergio Garcias at GASGAS)! Valentino Rossi would like to sign the Spaniard as the first non-Italian for his VR46 Riders academy and build him into his Sky VR46 Moto2 team along with Vietti for MotoGP in 2022.

But like Raul Fernandez, Acosta, who has already ridden a KTM for the overall victory in the Rookie Cup and World Junior Championships, has a waterproof KTM contract. As a Red Bull athlete, he is contractually prohibited from switching directly to rival Monster.

But a serious Russian team. According to unconfirmed reports, the VR46 squad has already offered an immoral transfer of 500,000 euros for the super talent, who has long been compared to Marc Marquez.

Why Oliveira will stay with KTM after 2022

MotoGP winner Miguel Oliveira will also remain with KTM. He has a contract for 2022, and KTM has a fixed option for 2023 and 2024.

KTM Motorsport Director Pete Perrier and KTM CEO Stephan Perrier have no doubts that Oliveira will also race KTM for 2023 and 2024. Brad Bender has already extended his contract by then.

The appreciation of the Portuguese was also evident in Stefan Perrier’s interview on SPEEDWEEK.com. “Miguel Oliveira is, of course, a very smart fellow. His contract is still valid for 2022 anyway. I suppose nothing will change after that. It is really a pleasure for me.”

Perrier continues: “I try to work with drivers who have been with us for as long as possible and who are our brand. KTM is like family. We now have a very special relationship with drivers like Oliveira and Bender, who have been driving our cars for a decade.”

After all, all questions regarding the distribution of materials for 2022 have now been clarified. Suzuki wanted to put together a satellite team for the first time since establishing the MotoGP Four-Stroke World Championship in 2022, but that didn’t work out again. Aprilia relied heavily on the deal with Gresini, which would have brought in an additional 3 million euros from Dorna, plus about 3.5 to 4 million in rental fees from Gresini. But the Gresini family knew that the deceased team’s founder was old to Aprilia, and therefore would prefer to continue his legacy with Ducati.

Noale’s new Aprilia Factory Racing team will be on its feet for five years after 2021. In the seven years since Aprilia’s comeback in 2015, Aprilia has used the two teams’ spaces at Gresini through a joint venture.

Summing up Ducati will bring eight bikes to the track in 2022, Honda, Yamaha and KTM have four each, and Aprilia and Suzuki have two each.

This is what Team MotoGP will look like in 2022

Repsol Honda
Marc Marquez, Paul Espargaro

Ducati Lenovo Team
Jack Miller, Biko Bajnaya

Yamaha Monster Energy
Maverick Vinales, Fabio Quartaro

suzuki ecstar
By Alex Raines, Joanne Mir

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
Brad Bender, Miguel Oliveira

Aprilia Factory Racing Team
Alex Espargaro and Andrea Dovizioso? Joe Roberts?

Bramac race
Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco

Aramco Sky VR46 Racing Ducati
Luca Marini, Marco Pizzi?

Petronas Yamaha SRT
Valentino Rossi? Franco Morbidelli

Honda LCR
By Alex Marquez and Takaaki Nakagami

KTM Tech3 Factory Racing
Remy Gardner, Danilo Petrucci?

Gresini Ducati Racing
Ina Bastianini, Fabio Di Giannatonio