Crashes, Honda and his future in MotoGP

Joan Mir has had a unusual journey in MotoGP. Crowned Moto3 champion in 2017 and finishing sixth in his sole Moto2 season the following year, the Spaniard endured a low-key rookie season — marred by injury — at Suzuki in 2019, before clinching an unexpected title the very next year, amidst a season defined by a reshuffled calendar due to COVID-19 and Marc Marquez’s injury.

In 2022, Suzuki’s surprise withdrawal led Mir to become Marquez’s team-mate at Honda — right in the midst of the most challenging period for the Japanese manufacturer, a team he has watched slowly begin its recovery in recent years. He is currently contesting his fourth season with the Japanese giant — and perhaps his last.

Honda’s struggles have caused Mir immense self-doubt over the last few years, to the point where he even contemplated walking away from it all during the 2023 season. Yet he persevered, extended his contract and learned to navigate these difficult periods without losing his desire to shine or his competitive fire — a passion evident in his commitment during races, where his aggressive riding style has cost him dearly since the start of the season.

The French GP served as a microcosm of this early-season trend: Mir was Honda’s top performer, running in sixth place during the race, until he suffered yet another crash. In 10 starts, counting both sprint races and Sunday grands prix, Mir has crashed six times this year. And if one adds a technical issue in Thailand to that tally, the race at Jerez stands as the only time he has actually reached the finish line in a main event.

In an interview with Motorsport.com France at Le Mans, Joan Mir opened up about the current situation at Honda, his personal approach, his on-track aggression, and the prospects of a resurgence in 2027 — perhaps under a new set of colors.

Motorsport.com: How to you assess the beginning of the season?

Joan Mir: As you can imagine, I think that we’ve been quite competitive for the package that we actually have, but for some reason we couldn’t put the result together. I crashed so much in the first races. We were fighting for the podium, like in Austin in the sprint, and in all the races we’ve been always inside the top 5, top 6, despite Jerez, for many reasons. I see that there is potential. The shame is that we have Ducati and Aprilia, and there are a lot of bikes, and that’s a bit the thing.

MS: Are you happy with the improvement of the bike this year, or were you expecting to be closer to the European manufacturers?

JM: Honestly, I expected a little bit more, because after the last part of the year that we’ve been quite competitive, I expected an improvement from the bike, to be fighting a little bit more in front. But we have to take a lot of risk to be fighting with the guys. I know that if, maybe in a GP, everything comes together, and we put everything on point, then we can fight for the podium, but we cannot for the championship.

MS: Johann Zarco explained that you are amazing during the braking phase, and he cannot do what you do. But he also said that you are taking more risks, and maybe that’s why you are crashing in races. Is it because of the way you ride the bike, or do you just want to take more risks?

JM: No, I think it’s a combination. It’s true that in the races where I crashed, I was always in front, I was fighting for top 5, top 4, and the second Honda maybe I was in top 10, or top 12. So if you try to do something more, you finish on the ground. And sometimes that balance is something that is not easy. I take probably more risks than the other riders, yes, that’s true.

MS: Is it something that makes you accept the current situation? Is it a top 5 or a crash, and not a top 12?

JM: No, no, I should learn. I should learn about doing more 12th position, 10th, but sometimes it’s not easy to manage. I know what I’m capable to do with a good bike, or on a good weekend, and it’s not easy to accept that we don’t have the speed to do more.

MS: You seem to be more calm about it than three years ago, when you said you almost quit. How do you manage that?

JM: Well, three years ago I was in a moment to… Now I accept the situation, I accept the limitation from our package, and three years ago, no. In my second year, I won the title, in my third year I finished third in the championship with the Suzuki, and then I joined Honda. It’s not easy to get used to finishing on the podium almost every weekend, and then accept that you cannot go into top 10! [laughs] It was very difficult for me, mentally, to accept it. But now, mentally I know that I accept the situation, I know that now we cannot do so, but I keep trying.

MS: At the time, you said you worked with a psychologist, are you still doing that?

JM: No, not anymore, but I worked for a long time.

MS: Is it useful when you’re on the bike? Fabio Quartararo worked with a psychologist and said sometimes it’s doing things on the bike. Do you have the time to do such things on the bike?

JM: To think, you don’t have [the time]!

MS: But does it help to keep the nerves down?

JM: I think the psychologist gives you, not the solution, but the tools to find yourself the solution. And I think that is something that is really helping me. On the bike I don’t have much time to think about.

MS: Maybe to calm down in the cool down lap?

JM: Maybe, yes! [laughs]

MS: Do you think that the competition will be closer with new bikes next year? Is it possible to close the gap to Ducati and Aprilia?

JM: I don’t think so. I don’t think so, because I think we’ll be very similar because in our case [at Honda] we are not able to find a solution of more competitiveness after many, many years. I don’t think that in the first year we will be able to make a big click and to be the best bike on the grid. I don’t think so. But if we follow, if we continue working and everything, maybe we can make a step. And even if it’s a new bike, a new concept, maybe to make a small step closer to Ducati and Aprilia, that now they are the reference. Maybe it’s possible.

MS: Since you joined Honda, the team has changed a lot, there are more European technicians. Are you feeling something different in the team?

JM: Yes, some new people joined the team. Some of them, I think it was a big help. Not every change is positive, this is also true [laughs], but most of the changes that Honda did in terms of people were very helpful. I think the new concept of changing, bringing engineers from Europe to help the Japanese – we know that they are very, very strong – was the correct way. And I think that we make an improvement of the bike for this reason. And these are things that I feel very proud.

Joan Mir, Honda HRC

Photo de: Marc Fleury

MS: You are speaking like you will still ride Honda next year, is it true? Do you want an official bike at any cost or could you join an independent team?

JM: That is a very good question. I cannot answer to you yet, because we are just trying to understand what is best for my future. At the moment I can’t guarantee that I’ll stay here; that’s also quite true. But soon I will know what I will do for sure. I am in a position that I will do what my heart will want. But soon, we will know. I will be loyal to my feelings, loyal to what I want, and this is the only thing that I can say. But soon we will know.

MS: Do you have a deadline on your decision?

JM: As soon as possible, but also it is important that the decision I take is the one that I want. That is important. I think when you are a little bit younger, you can accept the situations that you probably don’t want, but you think that with time you will solve that thing, but now I am not in that situation. I am happy because the decision that I will take will be something that I really want, and that makes me happy.

MS: Does it mean that you also want a team that really wants you and really wants you to be the leader of the project?

JM: I am not saying that. It is about understanding what I really know, and the decision that I am taking, be 100% sure and loyal to that decision.

MS: How can a rider help the development of the bike? What are you telling the team when you are testing new parts?

JM: Normally, the rider, what we all want is to be faster. Normally, we can say what we feel on the bike as a rider, but we are not engineers. Maybe some riders think that they are engineers, but we are not! We are riders and we can explain, our role is to explain very well what we feel, but not the solution. The solution of what we can do to make the bike faster is not in our hands. We don’t know, we are not engineers. But we can say, ‘I want a bike that… I want to turn more with the rear, I want a better feeling with the front. Maybe I feel that the front is light and I want more weight’. This type of things, but we cannot think about ‘but I would like a shorter swingarm, I want a chassis’. 

MS: But you know what it feels to run with a shorter swinger…

JM: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can ‘I will try a shorter bike’. But we don’t know how to do it. And that is the team, that is the one that should develop, translating on that thing. So, this is what the rider can do. And normally, if something is working, you feel it.

MS: And It works for every rider…

JM: Normally, yes! Normally it is like that.

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— The Motorsport.com Team