Toprak Razgatlioglu made his debut with the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team at the Algarve circuit yesterday, a day earlier than originally planned and things were… ‘hectic’, explained Shaun Mir.
The team’s Team Principal spoke about the last-minute decisions to change their testing program and much more, praising the way the team worked: ‘It’s a bit surprising, we didn’t expect to be on track on Sunday. We planned for Monday, but we had the opportunity to have some track time, so we took it. We did some adaptation laps. We literally had three or four 20-minute sessions. We did exactly what we wanted to do: put him on the bike, making him feel at home. We weren’t looking for anything beyond that initial feedback. He will certainly have many things he will want to change because it’s completely new to him. In short, it was well worth the opportunity we took advantage of’.
He then admitted to feeling a bit nervous watching Razgatlioglu aboard the M 1000 RR: ‘It’s nervousness for everyone. We’ve been waiting for this moment for a few months now. We would have liked to have been on track earlier. We’re here in December and the conditions are not the best. Of course, everyone is excited. It’s great for the team. There was a bit more pressure on Sunday morning because we expected to be doing more promotions, videos, and photos, but that didn’t happen’.
And he concluded: ‘It has been four crazy hours since we decided to participate. We had to mobilize quickly, set everything to temperature, prepare the team and it was quite hectic! Due to the quick response, the nerves disappeared and we continued working. It was great to see him get on the bike and see #54 going down the pitlane with the BMW’.
