Marco Bezzecchi
Toprak Razgatlioglu has been looking to Yamaha star Fabio Quartararo to find improvements in MotoGP, and Gino Borsoi noticed strong progress in Catalunya.
The Turkish rider has been having a tough time during his debut season in the premier class. He is having trouble adapting to his new machinery, having scored four points for Pramac thus far.
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To find improvements on the YZR-M1, Razgatlioglu has been looking at Quartararo, and he is keen to understand how the Frenchman is so far ahead of the other Yamaha riders.
He is 13th in the standings with 37 points, with the next-best Yamaha, Alex Rins, being 19th with nine points. Razgatlioglu realised he does the opposite of Quartararo when looking at his data, but the Catalunya test showed that he was keeping up with the 2021 champion.
Toprak Razgatlioglu’s data showed he was ‘on par’ with Fabio Quartararo
Quartararo finished the test in second behind Pedro Acosta, while Razgatlioglu was at the bottom of the timings, 1.2 seconds behind the lead Yamaha rider.
Rain during the second session ended the test early, denying more running and an improved overall time for Razgatlioglu. Nevertheless, Borsoi was impressed by his rider, as he was actually ‘on par’ with Quartararo.
Speaking about Razgatlioglu’s test, Borsoi told Speedweek: “Track time is something you can’t buy. Losing half a day wasn’t good news for Toprak.
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“He needs to ride the bike, and we need to teach him how to adapt his riding style. He’s an open-minded guy, receptive to new things, so he’s trying to change.
“Based on the data, we saw that he’s already on par with Quartararo in some areas of the track, while there’s still room for improvement in others.
“But I’m very pleased because he understood two races ago that he needs to learn from the other riders, especially Quartararo, and follow our advice.”
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Gino Borsoi doubts an engine upgrade will come soon for Yamaha
Razgatlioglu really liked Yamaha’s chassis upgrade during the test and seemed to get along with the bike better. But there is still huge room for improvement, and it may take time for other updates to come.
Borsoi does not expect an engine upgrade anytime soon, as the Iwata outfit are struggling with the V4’s power. Asked when one could arrive, he added: “Hard to say, I hope so. But honestly, we have no information about an engine upgrade.
“First of all, they have to work on it at home and try to extract a bit more power, which isn’t easy – because when you try to improve the engine’s performance, problems arise.
“If the engine power is good, Yamaha will bring the new development stage to the track – but that probably won’t happen too soon.”
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