Let’s talk about MotoGP: Joan Mir, too much, it’s too much

It is time to (re) launch the Joan Mir debate, because its start to the MotoGP season is unprecedented – not in the good sense of the word. If it continues like that, future generations will find it difficult to believe that he was one day world champion in the queen category. The Honda official still can’t stay on her wheels and it’s a problem, for him as for the winged firm.

A terrible statistic

If you think, looking at the Grand Prix Motos, let Joan Mir fall all the time, Know that it is not just an impression. The double career world champion has dropped nine times in the last sleep races. In 2025, he finished only one test in five performances. Since he signed at Honda in 2023it has 54 % of abandonments. I can no longer defend it.

Joan Mir is no longer there. Photo: HRC

Some will say that it is because he tries, that he tries things to the handlebar of the recalcitrant RC213V. So that may be the case in 2023, when he discovered it, but obviously, this honda is no longer that bad, Witness the performance of Johann Zarco. Watch Luca Marini, who is one of my great surprises from this start of the year. Before, it was said that the Italian was slow, but he at least ended the races.

In 2025, Marini was sometimes faster than Mir, in qualifying but not only. And he, thanks to his regularity acquired in 2024, manages to materialize his progress, which the Spaniard cannot do. Marini currently points to 12th place in the general classification, with, roughly, the double of Mir points. How can we still say that n ° 36 is the best of both?

Nine abandonments in eleven races is unheard of for an official pilot in the 21st century, and knowing the power of factory teams in the past, I think that it has never happened in the history of the Grand Prix Motos but it would be necessary to look into the question. As a reminder, in 2024, He did not score any ten times, ten!

Already on an ejecting seat?

Mir has talent, it’s undeniable, but I admit that I do not grasp his approach, his philosophy. The problem is that such acts can be forgiven when a driver discovers a motorcycle, or the whole team dives. It is for this reason, I imagine, that the public was relatively mild with him so far. In 2023, Alien Marc Marquez was not a real comparison point and we knew that Honda fell. In 2024, he fell enormously, yes, but Marini couldn’t make the motorcycle work either, no more than Takaaki Nakagami.

But in 2025, everything changes. Johann Zarco has already immented on the front line after qualifying, and in the Top 4 at the Qatar Grand Prix following the relegation of Maverick Vinales. Again, I think we can only congratulate Luca Marini as much as it is, quite frequently, the best Honda driver – This was the case in the United States but also in Jerez despite failed qualifications ; He went up six places on Sunday.

I do not like to shoot the ambulance, especially when it has three punctured tires, but I have no choice. Photo: HRC

If RCV continues to progress, also helped by concessions and the different regulations that governed Japanese efforts since the start of the season, there is no doubt that Honda’s financial power will attract large fish. Rumors sometimes evoke the signature of Pedro Acostasometimes that of Toprak Razgatlioglu and perhaps others are concerned in the MotoGP paddock. If you had the opportunity to recruit someone, Who would you put on the key? I think that in the state, any other answer that Joan Mir would not be the result of an objective analysis, taking into account the nationality of Somkiat will sing, that goes without saying.

Indeed, Mir is Spanish and Marini no, but not said that it plays in his favor. First, Honda can always replace it with a Spaniard in search of a real challenge, and this is not what is missing in 2025. I simply want to remember that the oil tanker, which was largely responsible for this preference – No non-Spanish in the team between 2013 and 2023 – is no longer there.

Honda must recruit in order to find a real leader, young, who, alongside Johann Zarco at LCR, can lead the winged firm to victory. Without a doubt, it will soon be the goal. Honda must find her Fabio Quartarao in a way, someone who embodies the project in the long term. Mir is only 27 years old, but I unfortunately think that it is not the one on whom the world’s largest manufacturer must bet if he wants to return to the top. That’s sad to say, but in his own way, he makes the progress of invisible engineers statistically, because his speed does not translate.

I hope to be wrong and I can only wish to get up and make me lie. I am curious to know if you share my opinion concerning Joan Mir. Tell me in comments!