Joan Mir has had a very difficult start to the season with Honda. After arriving from Suzuki like Alex Rins, winner of the Grand Prix of the Americas for the LCR team, the new factory rider has had one setback after another: no access to Q2, no top 10 in the race, crashes in the Sprints in Portugal, Argentina and Spain, and other crashes in the main race at Austin, Jerez and Le Mans.
The comparison with Marc Marquez, present for only two race weekends but fighting for the podium every time, is hard for the 2020 champion who feels in a very different situation from his compatriot. “Marc is not my rival, I’m not fighting him, I don’t see it that way now,” said the Majorcan. “He understands the weapons we have, not me.”
Mir is completely out of his comfort zone on the Honda: “I’m not able to attack, I’m surviving on the bike. Sometimes my head wants to do something, but the bike doesn’t respond. You have to ride the bike in a very different way and the team it has to help me give me what I need. I can’t be 100% on the bike.”
“At the moment the team doesn’t understand what I need to perform,” he said. “Even I don’t understand what they have to do to ride the bike in a better way and get good performance. Because I’m trying to ride differently, to have a different style, but right now it’s not my natural style and you’re not in the position to which you would like to be to maintain the speed in the corners, to accelerate a little earlier. Every time I go wide, I open up the line a lot… At the moment we are in difficulty”.
Mir’s difficulty was confirmed in qualifying at Le Mans, with a time 0″010 slower than the one achieved 24 hours earlier in FP1: “My side of the garage is motivated, but we haven’t found the key. It’s very strange to set my best time in the first session on Friday and not be able to do better on Saturday in qualifying. It’s very strong, I don’t understand why these things happen.”
Joan Mir
The Spaniard has only raced five race weekends with Honda, but is already questioning his ability to adapt. Before him, Jorge Lorenzo, Alex Marquez and then Pol Espargaró seemed unable to familiarize themselves with the RC213V and the 2020 world champion fears he will find himself in the same situation.
“Of course I’m scared. I want to win and it’s very difficult for a rider like me to see himself in my position. Winning races, getting on the podium, being in the leading group, that’s what motivates me. It’s been a long time since the last time that I had this motivation”.
For its part, Honda is working hard to try and improve its bike, particularly with the arrival of a chassis developed with Kalex at Le Mans, which seems to have given general satisfaction. Mir insists on the need to make specific modifications to his bike to achieve good performance.
“I think we can adjust the current bike. We came here, we tested the bike on Friday, for FP1, then I wasn’t able to improve my time in FP1. I know how to ride because I’m fast from the start, but if I try to be better, everything becomes a little more difficult”.
“It’s not that I forget how to drive, it’s just that they have to understand what I need, the kind of driving I’m used to. Of course, as a driver you can change some things, but you can’t change everything. We have to find compromises all the time. inside the team, on what I need,” he concluded.
With Germán Garcia Casanova and Aurélien Attard
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