Toprak Razgatlioglu crew chief split likely amid Miguel Oliveira WorldSBK revelation

Switching to MotoGP looks set to cost Toprak Razgatlioglu his relationship with his long-time crew chief Phil Marron, who now seems likely to work with Miguel Oliveira in 2026.

After Alberto Giribuola departed KTM, where he had worked as Enea Bastianini’s crew chief in the Tech3 team since the beginning of 2025, the Italian has been expected to join the Pramac Yamaha team for 2026.

There, he has been rumoured to be lining up a partnership with Toprak Razgatlioglu, who will join the satellite Yamaha team from World Superbike next year.

The presence of Giribuola would mean a lack of space for Phil Marron, with whom Razgatlioglu has worked since 2019, his second season in WorldSBK. All 76 of Razgatlioglu’s WorldSBK wins to date, and both titles, have been taken with Marron at the head of his technical team.

It is a team that Oliveira, who was confirmed as a BMW WorldSBK rider for 2026 following the conclusion of last weekend’s (26–28 September) Aragon Round, now seems set to inherit for his debut World Superbike campaign.

“Yes, everything indicates that that will be my crew, Toprak’s [Razgatlioglu] crew,” Miguel Oliveira said on Friday (3 October) in Indonesia.

Asked to confirm, in that case, that his crew chief will be Phil Marron, Oliveira said: “Yes. I think so.”

WorldSBK’s agreeable schedule

While MotoGP continues to expand its calendar and is currently heading towards the conclusion of its longest-ever season at 22 events, World Superbike has remained stagnant around the 12-race mark since the Indonesian and Argentinian rounds fell away in the past couple of seasons.

For Oliveira, this is something that brings its benefits, especially as a father.

“In life, you always try to aim to have the best of everything,” he said.

“I was a father quite young because I wanted to be, and it’s for sure not easy to manage to have a family.

“Economically you need to have a job that you are in a privileged position to be able to have a mum which is dedicated to the kids – which is not easy because you are holding up her dreams, her life, for a period of time over yours. 

“Then you say ‘Week in and week out I’m travelling and you stay at home and you do this’. Economically you need to be comfortable. 

“We riders for sure are much more [comfortable] than mechanics; so mechanics, their wives have to go work [and look after] the kids. So, you do sacrifice a lot. 

“Sometimes you try to understand ‘Is it really worth it to miss that much time away from my kids, from my wife,’ and then you start to realise that maybe with a little bit less money and much less races I can be happier.”

He added: “If you try to look at your life as a whole, 25 races is not ideal but if it’s really what you want to do then you need to be 100 per cent sure.”