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Joan Mir On Racing For Honda, Fixing MotoGP, And Dealing With Crashes: "You Remember Every Crash"

By David Emmett |

Interviews are precarious things. A hundred things can happen between arranging the interview, actually speaking to the person you want to interview, and then publishing it. Sometimes you get lucky, and the rider you want to speak to wins a race the week before your scheduled appointment. Sometimes they break a leg and are absent at the race you had arranged to speak to them. And sometimes something major happens between the time you interview someone and the publication date.

When I arranged to speak to Joan Mir, I got lucky. The 2020 MotoGP world champion arrived at Mugello fit, healthy, and in an open and talkative mood. That was not a given, after the miserable weekend he had at Le Mans, finishing down in 14th in the sprint race and crashing out of the Sunday grand prix.

Mir spoke openly about the unexpected difficulties he had faced since joining the Repsol Honda team, and the low point which Honda finds itself in. He spoke about how he handles such difficulties mentally, how he tries to put bad experiences behind him and where he finds the mental strength to keep grinding away, trying to make progress. And he spoke about the problems facing MotoGP, how the current state of technology has taken control away from the riders and made the bike a much, much bigger part of the overall performance package.

I was also lucky in a way journalists do not like to be lucky. I spoke to Joan Mir at some length about how he deals with crashes, tries to learn from them, and put them behind him when he gets back on the bike. Then, during practice on Friday, Mir had another big crash, damaging his right hand and forcing him to withdraw from Mugello, and then the following two weekends at the Sachsenring and Assen. The interview had been relevant in a way I would not wish on anyone.

Joan Mir is always fascinating, though. One of the most thoughtful and intelligent riders on the current MotoGP grid, a rider who looks beyond the next session to see the bigger picture. When he speaks, it is always worth listening.

Q: What were your expectations when you signed for Repsol Honda? On the one hand, it's the biggest team in racing, it's the most important Spanish team because of the link with Repsol, but we've also seen how difficult it is for teammates of Marc. We saw Jorge Lorenzo struggle. What were you expecting?

Joan Mir: Well, of course when you come to this team with these colors, you know that nothing but winning is a good result. And always the expectations here are very high. It's true that now they are probably a little bit less, because now after many years they are not passing through their best moment. And we arrive at that moment, but I think it's a matter of time before the team like this one finds a bit the way of what you need to be fast. And we are a bit there in the middle. At the moment, it's difficult, because I don't feel great on the bike. I'm not enjoying. And this is a reality. But I have hopes that this situation can only change in a team like this one.

Q: You've ridden behind Hondas for many years, so you must have had an idea of what the bike was doing well and what it wasn't doing well. How is it different from your expectations when you finally got to ride it?

JM: Well, when I was behind them, when I exploded really in MotoGP was one moment when the Hondas weren't winning. So I didn't really see the bike as having a huge potential when I came here. It's not that there was one area where I would say, it looks very good here, because I didn't have an opportunity to fight with Marc in his best moment with the Suzuki.

When I came here, the reality was that it's a difficult bike. I could see before coming here there were a lot of crashes, for every rider. And at the moment I'm having those crashes, and I'm in that process of learning that on this bike, that you need to crash to be fast. And this is a reality at the moment.

Q: How hard is that mentally?

JM: Very hard.

Q: Because crashes hurt, even for MotoGP riders?

Honda
Joan Mir
MotoGP
Mugello, Italy
CormacGP
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Comments

It was a very tough break for Mir and Rins with Suzuki exiting Motogp and not a massive choice of alternative seats available for them!

Though satellite Gresini Bastianini's seat was available. Mir or Rins could of swallowed their pride joined smaller team and would be riding on Alex Marquez seat instead justnow.

Plus KTM would likely also took ex Motogp champion Mir instead of Miller. And took Rins instead of rookie Augusto Fernandez at GasGas.

 

 

 

 

Oh no, not another know nothing expert...(cough)

'I see that the bikes are in general easier to ride than when I arrived in 2019.'.....'to make a difference if you don't have the correct bike is very tough now.'.....'ride-height devices and that, I would remove it.'.....'But the thing of the aerodynamics is clear, the first thing that I would do.'.....'in terms of show, in terms of riding skill and everything, it's not better.'

The opinion of a world champion.

I think he's right. I've noticed some people explode when the word easier is used...they only ever hear easy. Relative versus absolute. 

 

However, fair comment,...as it ever was.

I'm interested in the 'tighter than ever' field. As Mir points out, at the starts there is less chance for the rider to make the difference. I've also heard riders and engineers talk about straights where the bike is now pinned. Previously the rider must play with the throttle and/or the rear brake to stop the wheelie etc etc. Less opportunity for the rider to make a difference. It's not that it is easy but that the rider now makes a smaller difference.....and yet, Mav consistently makes bad starts compared to Aleix. Jack fades more than Brad, Peco wins more than Martin despite Martin being as fast as light, Fabio is generally much faster than Franco etc....as it ever was.

Couldn't agree more with that last observation.

And you can cut that rider portion in a few slices :

- Riding ability (be it natural or acquired)

- Adaptability

- Mentality

- Mental strength

- Physicality (is that a word?) (pure strength, stamina, agility,...)

- Intelligence

- ...



Each rider ticks those boxes in a different way and thus influences the results a bike can achieve 'theoretically' not only more or less, but also in a different way.

So perhaps yes, less difference, but the difference he does make can come from a multitude of factors which makes it all the more interesting trying to figure out 'how' a rider gets the edge over his teammate.

Well some of the comments from Mir and Folger paint a very dark image. F1 ? Vomit maximus. However, the Ducati riders have each others data. They know what the other riders are doing but each rider seems to have a distinct 'track character'. If you looked at a 'time behind leader' trace of the Ducati riders you would have a decent chance of naming each trace. Not so robotic.

However, anything that makes close racing more difficult should be killed off before it lays eggs.

Thoughtful and insightful? Maybe it's the language thing, but I just do not see it. Nearly all racers express similar thoughts and insights when asked. If it were not for his passport, he would not be in that team. And I have a feeling he will be moved on soon to make way for .. But, yeah, lovely guy.

The most interesting comment to me was that if he didn't have his training routine, he would have left the sport years ago. Too much stress it seems. He's got more stress now than ever! What with all the mystery crashes and all... He sounds like his MotoGP career will be short. I'd sure like to see a similar interview with Rins. I bet his comments would be very different.

Honda has negated Mirā€™s ā€œsuperpower.ā€ Mir has never been a great qualifier, best on the brakes, excellent passer, name the accolade. What he was was consistent. Thatā€™s how he won his title. Not with wins but by generally being in the top five race after race after race, few crashes, amassing points. On the Honda he canā€™t finish a race. Must be incredibly frustrating. No bike should require crashes to be fast. 

Agree with most apart from excellent passer as when Mir won his Moto3 title he was passing lot's of riders during his 10 race wins. Also Mir actually is very good late on the brakes!

Still only 25 so I don't think we have seen his full potential. He would need to be on a Ducati or KTM for a couple of seasons to see how good he really is compared to a Bagnaia, Binder. 

 

ā€œNo bike should require crashes to be fast.ā€ 

But hasnā€™t that been exactly Marcā€™s strategy in the past? Push like hell and crash time and again in practice, finding the limitsā€¦.then use that knowledge to snaffle podium after podium, win after win?

In seasonā€™s past it was enough. Plenty of folks thought Marc could ride a tricycle and still win the championship. Rewind a few months and a fully fit Marc Marquez was somewhere in nearly all punditā€™s championship contenders this year.

He has been incredibly lucky crashing in the past, walking away from that 200mph get-off at Mugello, another monster at Silverstone a couple of years ago, he lead the crash stats of 2021 13 rounds in despite missing the first 2!

But the only certainty about luck is it will change.

You canā€™t keep poking fate in the eye and expect to emerge unscathed. And here we are. The law of averages is inescapableā€¦even when youā€™re as fast as Marc Marquez.

 

I just read that and it's another game of words.

More difficult because the bikes are either working or not, crash or not crash, fast or slow and the rider has to be very technical and precise to get the bike into a very small working window. 

He also says that there are many ways to get the bike into that window.

At the same time Folger says that the rider cannot ride around bike problems and that the rider makes less of a difference.

It's not easy to maintain the bike inside that small working window but the end result is pretty much the same if you manage to do it no matter you are a MM93 or whoever.

The bikes are more difficult to ride now but the field is closer than ever. The rider makes less of a difference now but the bikes are harder to ride. Eh ?

Then again, we still see the rider making a big difference at Yamaha and Honda....ahhhh....Folger also agrees that Yamaha and Honda are still racing bikes.

That was a great read. Folger clearly has talent up to his eyeballs - to have that much time away then come back to totally different bikes and score points is pretty special. He articulates the changes in the bikes better than anyone else I've read, Crafar is probably the only other person who comes to mind.

Surely ā€˜easier to rideā€™ is the interesting part here. Actually more comfortable and safe or easier to get a fast(er) lap time? And thatā€™s what it comes down to, right?

It seems like there needs to be a discussion about what everyone wants from the sport. Iā€™m reasonable confident we all want competitive entertainment. 

I love a new lap record as much as anyone else but it doesnā€™t ~really~ matter with so many factors involved to give that perfect moment. 

 

To me 366kmh vs 340kmh doesnā€™t actually mean a thing. Itā€™s stupidly fast anyway you cut it. If everyone has aero then the advantage is gone. Make an agreement to flick it off and move on. Thereā€™s no real purpose beyond that. Open up engine rules like the early days to let the engineers have fun. 

 

Ps. I think what Ducati has done with aero is awesome. I love a shake up. I only own Japanese bikes and I think honda and Yamaha have handled this terribly. They deserve this. Life goes on and they were due for a low point. Alberto and Lin can cry all night. 

 

 

Folger says they are more difficult to ride than before. Mir says easier. I think they are just describing different things. I think Folger is describing a very narrow operating window and that narrowness is what makes it so difficult...difficult to keep the bike inside that window. Also he describes the loads on the bike from the aero which I guess must make the bikes very much more physical to ride. I think from a different perspective you could also call what Folger describes as easy, almost formulaic, that narrow window also acts as a guiding light. Put it in the window, you'll be fast but no faster, the bike is the limit. Previously the bikes could perform over such a wide window that possibly, in comparison, it was difficult to know how to be fast, what was fast and that in some way could be described as being more difficult. Blah blah blah, I remain confused but that's very normal.

The worst thing about Folger's description is that a very narrow window doesn't mix well with close racing and huge battles. As he says, you do not have the room to give the other rider. It's less and less in the riders' hands to react and change course.

"If everyone has aero then the advantage is gone".

That would be correct if they all get the same advantage from aero.

But I think Ducati profits a lot more from the aero part of their bike to make it handle better etcetc.

So you would take away a lot more from them then from for example Honda or Yamaha.

The same can probably be said about the ride height devices...



Hence the reason Ducati aren't keen to give that up...