The showman and the quick kid: The link between MotoGP’s 2026 rookie odd couple

The likelihood of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Diogo Moreira sharing a slice of history at this weekend’s opening round of the MotoGP season in Thailand would, not so long ago, been considered somewhere between slim and none.

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One rider needs little introduction to fans of two-wheel motorsport the world over; the other is a name familiar to the hard core and for his compatriots, but with limited cut-through elsewhere.

One is Turkiye’s most famous motorsport export and a rider who has flirted with MotoGP for years; the other is Brazil’s first MotoGP rider in nearly two decades, and the poster boy for the first race to be held in his country since 2004 in March.

One turns 30 years old in October but has next to no experience of most tracks that feature on this year’s calendar; the other is eight years younger but has been on the world championship pathway ever since he left his native Sao Paulo for Spain as a young teen to pursue his dreams.

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But for all of their differences, Razgatlioglu and Moreira will be forever linked as MotoGP rookies in a season of transition for the sport, the series set to move to a brand-new 850cc era from 2027, and as two of just four riders with contracts beyond the end of this year, one that will shake up the MotoGP grid as we know it.

How Razgatlioglu and Moreira got to MotoGP – and the expectations placed on them from outsiders and from within – only thickens the brew for a series with international reach, but with a rider line-up that has skewed towards Spain and Italy more and more in modern times.

RAZGATLIOGLU: SMALL STEPS FOR A TWO-WHEEL GIANT

Razgatlioglu could never have stepped inside a MotoGP paddock and his reputation as one of motorcycle racing’s most compelling characters would remain water-tight.

The son of a renowned Turkish stunt rider, Razgatlioglu won three World Superbikes titles in eight seasons competing in the production bike series, and took championships for Yamaha (2021) and went back-to-back for BMW (2024-25) before deciding, finally, that MotoGP was an itch that belatedly needed scratching.

World Superbikes riders coming across – or up – to MotoGP doesn’t happen often. The last full-time WSBK rider to cross over was Frenchman Loris Baz in 2015; American Ben Spies, 16 years ago, is the most recent Superbikes champion to take the leap.

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MotoGP riders towards the end of their tenure often end up in Superbikes as the next-best thing to MotoGP when their options dry up, but Razgatlioglu – who first tested a MotoGP bike as far back as 2022 – couldn’t resist the urge to do precisely the opposite. It makes for a fascinating experiment.

It wasn’t what Razgatlioglu won in Superbikes, it was how he won it. Win after crushing win was celebrated with an array of gravity-defying stoppies that made him a social media sensation and a fan favourite. His passionate fan base at home rekindles memories of Italian fans besotted with Valentino Rossi in his heyday. As a showman, there’s few who can compete.

As teammate to Australia’s Jack Miller at Pramac Yamaha this season, Razgatlioglu has been thrown in the deep end on a bike that will likely be, by some distance, the slowest in the pack.

MotoGP’s pre-season testing days in Malaysia and Thailand were a whirlwind. On tracks he didn’t know, on a bike laden with electronics and ride-height devices and aerodynamic excrescences that demand a particular riding style, and on Michelin tyres that behave unlike the Pirelli rubber he was so comfortable with in Superbikes, Razgatlioglu struggled mightily.

Alex Rins, the second-slowest Yamaha rider in Thailand, was six-tenths of a second – light years in MotoGP terms – quicker than him over one lap. From being the top dog in Superbikes for years, Razgatlioglu was back at base camp.

Riding behind Miller in a race simulation in Thailand – ostensibly to study the Australian’s lines through the corners – Razgatlioglu began to understand what’s required to extract that final one per cent out of a bike that’s required to compete at the sharp end, even if he’s not taken the mental leap yet to do it

“When I was following Jack, I was surprised … I lost him in two corners,” he said.

“I’m always riding a little bit more calm, I don’t trust the front tyre. On braking it’s OK, but when I lean, I don’t know the limit. When I saw Jack at the first corner, he’s leaning a lot. I’m waiting for his crash, and after when I see he’s turning I’m also surprised.

“I’m always thinking corner by corner, trying to do my best, but the lap time is not coming and always I’m getting sad. But I know this because when I moved to MotoGP I understood very clearly that the tyres and the bike will be very different, and I need to adapt to this.

“On the brakes, I can do hard braking, but when I am leaning, I don’t really trust the front tyre because the other riders lean completely and the bike turns.

“I haven’t crashed … maybe I need to crash to understand the limit.”

Arriving to MotoGP in 12 months’ time, he says, was not an option.

“Before when I won the [2021] championship with Yamaha in Superbikes, it was not the right time to move to MotoGP,” Razgatlioglu said.

“I tried the MotoGP bike then, but I don’t like [it]. Everything is different – seat position, everything – I don’t like and continued with Superbikes. But when I won the [Superbikes] championship with BMW, everyone started to talk to me about MotoGP, and I say ‘maybe this is the right time’.

“A Superbike for me is a little bit easier to ride because it’s a more normal street bike … for me, this is a really big challenge. The first year for me is a training year, a learning year. But 2027, I think we will come back more strong because the rules are changing, new bikes are coming, and I also believe Yamaha will improve more. Pirelli coming [as MotoGP’s tyre supplier from 2027] is also good for me.

“For me everything is new, but I’m ready to learn. I need to adapt. It’s why I’m starting in 2026.”

It’s not just on track that Razgatlioglu has noticed the change that comes with moving to MotoGP. The extra attention based on what he’s already done has its benefits, but he wants to reserve his trademark celebration for when it’s warranted in the future, not because it has been his staple of the past.

“The first time in the MotoGP paddock … I’m not [someone who likes] a lot of interviews and photo shoots … I don’t like a lot the cameras but this is part of the job,” he laughed.

“In Superbikes, I made stoppies with a good result. MotoGP, I’m still learning … I don’t like to immediately make some show. A good result together with the show … I like more like this.”

MOREIRA: A NATION EXPECTS

Think Brazilian motorsport, and you’re justified in immediately gravitating towards four wheels.

Between them, Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet and Emerson Fittipaldi won eight Formula 1 drivers’ championships. Three other Brazilian drivers have won Grands Prix, with Rubens Barrichello and Felipe Massa finishing as world championship runners-up. Only British and German drivers have won more F1 races than the 101 taken by those competing under the iconic bandeira.

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As a kid born 20km outside of Sao Paulo in Guarulhos, two wheels were more Moreira’s thing, thanks to his dad Luiz. He began in motocross and eventually graduated to road racing, moving to Spain – home to his hero Marc Marquez – as a 13-year-old.

By 2022 – when Razgatlioglu was first testing MotoGP machinery – Moreira was a Moto3 rookie, winning for the first time in the cut-throat entry-level class of the world championship a year later. At 19, he was already in Moto2, one step away from MotoGP, something a rider from Brazil hadn’t achieved since Alex Barros in 2007.

And then came 2025. A slow start to the season saw him fall 61 points behind championship leader Manuel Gonzalez after just six rounds; in the remaining 16 races, Moreira won four times, took five other podiums, and won the title over Gonzalez on the final day of the season last November in Valencia.

It was the perfect way to cap a stunning rise, Moreira already confirmed as 2026 teammate to veteran Johann Zarco at Honda’s satellite LCR MotoGP squad the month prior after Honda beat Yamaha for his signature.

With Brazil set to host its first Grand Prix since 2004 in Goiania this March at the circuit named after F1 legend Senna, Moreira’s timing couldn’t be better.

Now, it’s all about getting accustomed to MotoGP machinery and the step up from Moto2. Moreira was more solid than spectacular in pre-season testing at Sepang and Buriram, but equally isn’t overawed by the task ahead or being teammates with Zarco, who at 35 is the sport’s oldest rider.

“We met the first time two years ago, we trained together,” Moreira said of the 2023 Australian Grand Prix-winning Frenchman.

“For sure it’s an amazing bike. In Moto2 the maximum speed was 290km/h, more or less … here, it’s 340km/h. You need to be able to stop this bike on the brakes … it’s a lot! But very fun to ride.

“After the first lap [in testing] when I put the bike on the straight and opened the full gas, I felt the power. We need to understand the bike and learn the lines and this is a bit different for me, but in the end it’s a bike so we need to ride the same as last year, but understand a bit more the engine and the Michelin tyres.

“Many people ask about goals, but in the end we need to enjoy. I have all the year to learn the bike, but if I enjoy I will go fast so I need to be focused on that point, and stay always in the same mentality.”

The sweeping regulation change in MotoGP set for 2027 buys Razgatlioglu and Moreira the rarest of MotoGP commodities not typically afforded to rookies – time.

But given the Turk is a serial winner in his former field, and that the Brazilian has already proved his worth on MotoGP’s ladder to the premier class, they’ll both be impatient to make their mark before too long.

It’s another common thread between what is surely MotoGP’s most disparate duo of debutants in many years.