Joan Mir: “Options on the table, but I don't really know what I want”

After spending his entire MotoGP career at Suzuki and winning the 2020 title, Joan Mir suddenly found himself needing a new team when the factory decided to quit at the end of 2022.

Now in the second and final year of his current Repsol Honda contract, the 26-year-old must make a similar call to former team-mate Marc Marquez: 

Should Mir stay and bet on a Honda recovery or seek instant competitiveness by moving to a European bike, even if that means joining a satellite team?

How much Marquez’s frontrunning form after walking out of Honda for a year-old Gresini Ducati will influence Mir’s choice is unclear but the #36 admits to having multiple ‘options on the table’.

“I have options on the table, but I don't really know what I want to do,” Mir said. “I need a bit more time, to understand, to take a good decision for my future. This is the reality.”

After 24 top-five finishes, including 13 podiums and a race win, at Suzuki, Mir scored just 26 points at Honda last season.

Of the six grand prix he finished, between accidents and injuries, the Spaniard’s best was a fifth place in India, his only top ten appearance.

While Mir is Honda’s top rider in the early 2024 standings, he has scored just twelve points and finished no higher than twelfth in a grand prix.

Mir admitted the step change in results since leaving Suzuki, which new Repsol team-mate Luca Marini is also now experiencing, takes its toll mentally.

“Very difficult. Because speaking about myself, I came from in [four] years winning two titles, in three different categories,” said the 2017 Moto3 world champion.

“So it means that I was always in the front in every year. A bad year was to be fighting for fifth position.

“You feed off the good results. Now you don't have this any more, so you have to motivate yourself in a different way.

“The small things, making a good race with the package that you have, that actually you cannot do more. And giving 100%. This is the motivation that you have to find at the moment.

“It's true that it's tough. The more success you've had in the past, the more difficult it is to understand the situation.

“Last year was a very difficult one for me, mentally. But this year I think I'm in a different mood.

“I try to give my 100%, be professional, give the correct feedback, and I just expect to get better. “

However, speaking before this week’s private Mugello test, Mir confessed:

“Honda are working very hard, but at the moment we are not getting the upgrades that we need. So I don't know honestly what to expect at the end of the season.

“I hope that in the Mugello test we will get an upgrade to make one step more.

“If like in Jerez, we were 20 seconds from the [top] with this package, then if we can be +12 or 15 seconds, that will be one step.”

Among the teams that could be interested in trying to temp Mir from Repsol Honda are Trackhouse, now run by Mir’s former Suzuki team principal Davide Brivio.

Of Honda’s four MotoGP riders, Mir and Takaaki Nakagami are out of contract this season, with new arrivals Marini and Zarco having deals in place until the end of 2025.