Why Austrian MotoGP is like a home race for Turkiye’s Toprak Razgatlioglu

Toprak Razgatlioglu says he’s “excited” for this weekend’s Austrian MotoGP because of the number of Turkish fans that are turning out to support him.

Austria is home to the third-largest group of Turkish citizens in Europe with over 117,000. Germany tops the list with 1.3 million. 

On arriving in Spielberg for this weekend’s Austrian MotoGP, Razgatlioglu was immediately made aware of the Turkish presence at the Red Bull Ring, where he will have his own grandstand.

The three-time WorldSBK champion is also hopeful that the rain in this weekend’s forecast can help him to achieve a decent result in front of perhaps the largest contingent of Razgatlioglu supporters to be present at a race all year.

“I'm really excited, because finally I see the Turkish flag, many,” Toprak Razgatlioglu said ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend.

“That's good, because I really miss [it], and this is good, but also the weather looks really nice, I really like it [rain] – really.

“I hope all weekend we see like this because we have only one chance to doing special result, you know.”

Razgatlioglu could have an actual home race in the future. He told Crash.net at Silverstone that he is in talks with MotoGP Sports Entertainment to add Istanbul Park back to the calendar, and in Austria the Pramac Racing rider confirmed that these talks remain ongoing for a potential 2028 race.

“Now we are talking about 2028, because we have a possibility to bring back MotoGP there [Istanbul Park], because Formula 1, they added five years contract,” Razgatlioglu said.

“This is good. Why MotoGP not come back again to Istanbul Park? Because Istanbul Park is ready to race now. 

“We will see, we are still working for this. 

“If MotoGP comes back to Istanbul Park, I need to show some special result – this is the biggest problem, too much pressure for me, you know!”