Joan Mir repeats: ‘Nobody goes out of Honda in a better way than they went in’

With Francesco Bagnaia, Fabio Quartararo and Marc Marquez confirming their 2025 MotoGP places, Joan Mir is the only premier-class champion on the current grid yet to decide his future.

The 2020 title winner switched to Repsol Honda after Suzuki’s MotoGP exit but the RC213V remains last in the constructors’ standings, where it has finished for the past two seasons.

Mir has at least scored half of the meagre 26 points he managed during the entire 2023 campaign but is openly pondering whether to stick with the project or follow former team-mate Marc Marquez in heading for the Honda exit.

Although insisting no decision has been made, Mir has repeatedly highlighted that recent Honda riders have all departed in a worse career position than when they arrived.

That doesn’t sound like a vote of confidence in HRC returning to the top anytime soon, while Marquez’s transformation after just a few months on a year-old Gresini Ducati is also on Mir’s mind.

“Probably in Assen, I need to have things more clear [about] what I want to do,” Mir said of next season and referring to the end-of-June Dutch TT.

“I need to have all the options on the table to decide [rather] than to say that I know perfectly where I want to go. That’s not my case now. I don't know where I want to go.

"So I will wait until I have all the offers on the table and like this I will choose.”

Although Mir is the leading Honda rider in the standings, he knows 18th overall and a best grand prix finish of 12th (9th in a Sprint) isn't going to turn any heads.

“People consider the bike that you use, of course, but the reality is… One thing that I’ve said is, nobody goes out of Honda in a better way than they went in,” Mir said.

“When I came to Honda, I had many offers... And now it's not like this. I have to wait for others that have priority at the moment.

“This is a bit the reality. It doesn't matter what you did in the past. Now it’s the others that are doing the results at the moment, maybe 4-5 riders, that have the priority. Then we are [among the] next 5 riders [to sign].”

Despite the added value of being a former MotoGP champion?

“Yes, but Marc also has a value when he moved to Gresini! And he went to Gresini, not to the factory. And his value is bigger than mine.”

But Marquez will be moving to the factory Ducati squad for 2025, with his form during just seven grands prix on a Desmosedici convincing the Italian manufacturer to sacrifice title leader Jorge Martin.

Mir admitted Marquez’s example of rejuvenating his career by stepping down to a satellite team, on a proven bike, could be ‘a line that I can follow’.

“I spoke many, many times with Marc. How he felt last year and how he feels now,” Mir said. “I had an example of a line that I can follow, or another one that is to stay in this situation [at Honda]. So I don't know.”

One thing Mir is confident about is that, at the age of 26, he isn’t ready to retire, despite admitting to doubts over his future during last year’s injury-strewn campaign.

“No, no. I don't think that I will go home,” he said. “Maybe later when I have the offers, I'll think about it, but no… I mean, if I move from this difficult situation in Honda, once you start to be competitive again, your mind changes completely.

“If you feel that doing the same thing [as now], you are there where you deserve and where your qualities are. Everything changes and maybe you want to stay 10 years more. But the thing is to move from this situation.”

In other words, it sounds like Mir needs to see signs of real progress from Honda if he is to stay on an RC213V in 2025.

Although the factory seats are filling up, only one satellite place, for rookie Fermin Aldeguer, is officially taken at the front-running European MotoGP manufacturers - Ducati, KTM and Aprilia.