‘Toprak Razgatlioglu has almost the same level of talent as Marquez’ – Ben Spies

Former rider Ben Spies, who rode in MotoGP between 2009 and 2013, believes that the talented Toprak Razgatlioglu could have already made the leap to the premier class.

‘My riding style, in general terms, wasn’t suited to MotoGP, a bit like what’s happening with Toprak Razgatlioglu today, who I put almost on the same level as [Marc] Marquez in terms of talent. I spoke to him after the races he did with the M1 and told him it would be difficult. [Jonathan] Rea is another rider with enough talent to be in MotoGP, but he would have to change his style. I think he thought it was better to stay in SBK and win titles than to go to MotoGP’, Spies said, speaking to the Gypsy Tales podcast.

The american’s time in MotoGP was marked by a series of shoulder injuries, the most serious of which occurred in 2012 when he was riding for Yamaha.

‘I’m not a big fan of the current aerodynamics directive, it limits points and overtaking and then it became more difficult to overtake. The current technical situation has brought some good races, but also crashes and injuries, all in 44 races. This has even happened more in the sprints than in the longer races, many things are decided in the first few laps, which is when it becomes more difficult to steer the machines at a certain pace. Fans don’t care about lap times or track records, they want to see the most exciting race possible. It would be better if some of the technical innovations disappeared in the future. There are so many who are trying to have more exciting races and now I think it’s enough to have tyres with less performance and avoid million-dollar developments’ said Ben Spies.