Former WorldSBK king Ben Spies has backed fellow American Garrett Gerloff to win at least one title but says he needs a circle of support the same as Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Gerloff, who hails from Texas, has had an up-and-down introduction to World Superbikes over the past two season, showing both flashes of brilliance and madness for the GRT Yamaha team.

“I see the potential in Garrett and I do see that if things happen the right way, he can win a WorldSBK title. He possesses that talent without a doubt, he just needs that circle around him like Toprak and Jonny have,” said Spies.

“It won’t come completely in 2022; he doesn’t have a Kenan there like Toprak does, and that will make a difference, in terms of bouncing ideas off of each other. I hope that he rides on his real confidence and does great things, and everything works well in the team, so he’s able to start building his own team around him. When it comes to talent and race craft, I know he’s got it.

I feel frustration, and I say that 100 per cent on Garrett’s side,” said Spies. “I feel bad because yes, he made some mistakes at the beginning of the year and caused a little bit of commotion and some people were upset, which was understandable.

I think he got a bit nervous and had to go a couple of weekends without making mistakes, as well as other things happening that didn’t need to happen that made him ride even more cautiously and that annoys me too.

“However, it’s the way it is and he’s getting through it; we’ve seen that his pace has been great after the first few laps of the races but he’s getting swallowed up in the opening turns because he doesn’t want to make a mistake and then he’s taking too long passing people because of the same thing. When he’s in free air, then he’s doing third or fourth place times without sweat.

“I understand that he made a few mistakes that set him on the back foot, and other things happened that didn’t help his confidence that I don’t agree with, but he’s now bouncing back. He’s a third to fourth place WorldSBK rider all day right now and I think he can finish inside the top four in the championship.

“I think he’ll get a couple of race wins that maybe, he should’ve had last year. He’s had the pace to do it a couple of times but for one reason or another, it’s not set him up right.”