Joan Mir feels former team-mate Alex Rins’ switch to the factory Yamaha team ‘will probably be good for him’ but insists he still believes in Honda’s MotoGP project.
Rins and Mir spent four years together at Suzuki, Rins winning five races on the GSX-RR and Mir the 2020 title.
Suzuki’s shock exit at the end of last season resulted in both switching to Honda, Mir to the official Repsol team alongside Marc Marquez and Rins at LCR with Takaaki Nakagami.
The RC213V’s decline has been well documented and the size of the task facing the pair was clear from 18th (Mir) and 20th (Rins) in their debut Honda test at Valencia.
Hopes were boosted by the arrival of ex-Suzuki technical manager Ken Kawauchi in January. But the clear technical gap to the best of the European bikes has continued.
That’s with the stand-out exception of COTA, where Rins stunned by claiming runner-up in the Sprint and then Honda’s first victory since 2021 in the Grand Prix.
“This year, the only one that was able to make a good result with the Honda is Alex in COTA, that one weekend,” Mir told Crash.net.
“Marc also showed good potential in the Sprint race in Portimao. But apart from that, it’s true that we couldn’t put all the speed together.
“COTA is a special track. We go only once a year. It’s a very difficult track. If you are good at that track, you can make some difference. And I think that Alex this year made a difference on that track.”
But Rins’ best result outside of Texas is a ninth place and he later joined Mir and Marquez on the injury list due to leg fractures at Mugello.
Rins’ return date remains unclear but there is no doubt about where he’ll be in 2024 having secured a switch to the Monster Yamaha team.
“Well, it will probably be good for him,” said Mir, when asked about Rins’ decision. “It’s a manufacturer with a lot of success in the past, and he’s a fast rider, so I think that he will be great on that package.”
Did Yamaha speak to you?
“No, we didn’t speak with Yamaha because we have a contact [with Honda] for next year,” Mir replied.
“I’m honestly not looking at any [other] place. I have full [commitment] with Honda as they have with me and I will try to do my best until the contract finishes and then we will decide. But I still believe that this can work.”
But with only an 11th place finish so far this season, in-between two sets of injuries, not to mention Marquez’s zero points in any Sunday races, Mir knows he can’t expect a miracle.
“What I want is to start to enjoy a bit. This is the first thing,” said the former Moto3 world champion.
“Finish races, get good information and wait [until] some improvement on the bike appears. And then with full health and everything, be able to say ‘OK this is working’ and try to be where I want.
“But for me it doesn’t make sense to start to crash like I did in the past, [just] to finish outside the top ten. For me what probably makes more sense, which at the beginning I was not doing, is trying to have a lower expectation for myself.”
Mir comments seemed to echo the ‘new’ approach Marquez said he was taking from Silverstone.
Don’t push the bike so hard when it’s not working?
“Don’t have such a high expectation that I had at the beginning of the year, that I want to win. That is my character,” Mir replied.
“Now in those difficult moments to say, ‘OK, maybe if we push to be close to the top 10, for now that’s fine’. Once something [new parts] arrives that I’m able to push, I will be there – because we can do it, we showed it in the past.
“So I think that is the mentality that I want to follow at the moment and if I follow this, I will enjoy.”
Marquez has spoken of happiness in his personal life helping to balance the trough in his professional career.
That’s also been the case for Mir, who recently became a father.
“To have a nice moment like that in such a difficult period is very, very welcome. I’m very happy at the moment,” Mir smiled.
Further hand injuries before the summer break meant unintended extra time with his family, what did Mir think when watching MotoGP from the sofa?
“Honestly after Mugello, I didn’t look at the races in Sachsenring because I was like ‘collapsed’. Then in Assen, I was able to see the races and everything. Watching from the outside, it’s looks hard [for Honda]. And from inside, it’s even harder probably.”
Mir may not have watched the German round but many viewed Marquez’s misery at his most successful circuit as something of a watershed moment.
Did Sachsenring show just how difficult the situation is for Honda?
“Well, I don’t have to look at Marc’s results to understand how difficult this situation is,” Mir replied. “I know a little bit what is going on there and it’s not easy for every rider in Honda to stay happy and to stay positive.
“But at the end, this is character [building]. We have to show character. We have to be calm. We have to stay all together and then to push for the same thing. That is what we want.”
“Marc is a super rider, the best one on the grid,” Mir added. “It’s hard also to see that the results are not coming for any of us – even if we got good results in the past.
“Now to be in this situation is not easy. It’s not easy for me, [because] I was able to be successful in the past. So [just] imagine for him, who was successful always.”
Being team-mate to Marc Marquez is one of the hardest jobs in MotoGP, how have you found it?
“Well, to have a fast team-mate is always an advantage because you can get some profit on the data that you don’t get if you are the one that is always in front,” Mir said.
“If you have always a strong team-mate this always improves the level of the riders and of the team. Like what happened with me and Alex in the past with Suzuki.
“Now we cannot see [the benefit] in Honda because both of us are not in the position that we expected. But it is what it is at the moment.
“I’m sure that we will improve. From now on, we can only get better. This is the truth at the moment and what we have to do. Also because MotoGP is so close now that even a ‘bit better’ can mean several places.”
Mir, contracted to Honda until the end of 2024, will be back on track at this weekend’s Austrian MotoGP at Red Bull Ring.
Keyword: MotoGP: Joan Mir ‘didn't speak with Yamaha, still believes it can work with Honda’