Joan Mir’s MotoGP future will be determined in part by his testing results in 2023
With the top MotoGP riders anticipated to sign contracts for the 2023 season as soon as possible, former world champion Joan Mir has acknowledged that pre-season testing will be crucial in order to ‘understand’ his future.
Mir was signed as a rookie in 2019 after Suzuki won a bidding war. Mir made history by becoming Suzuki’s first four-stroke MotoGP champion in 2020, following an injury-plagued debut season.
Last year, on his way to third overall behind Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo and Francesco Bagnaia, the Spaniard failed to lead a race lap and expressed open frustration with the GSX-rate RR’s of progress (Ducati).
With Mir’s contract up for grabs, a rival manufacturer might tempt the 24-year-old away in 2023. Suzuki’s good news is that Mir was impressed by their winter development efforts.
“A lot of people finish their contracts in 2022 and we are hoping to renew, or to take a different decision [for 2023]. Honestly, the test will be important for me. It will be important to understand everything,” Mir said, ahead of this weekend’s opening pre-season test in Sepang.
“As a Suzuki rider now, I feel great here, I feel like I am at home. But it’s true that a change is something that in some moments can be good, also. But at the moment, I cannot speak more about it because there is nothing decided. But let’s see.”
Mir added: ” I didn’t try the bike yet, but I saw that [Suzuki] have brought a lot of things to try, some improvements that are on paper quite interesting… Looks like Suzuki works more than I probably expected.
“Last year, something happened, and the things that they brought were not the step that the others made. And Suzuki knew that. And this year, they made a lot of effort to bring more things than normal.”
Suzuki riders, like Yamaha riders, have been pushing for higher peak speeds in order to compete with Ducatis.
“On the straight, the rider can’t do a lot,” Mir said. “It’s important to work well on picking up the bike, accelerate well, but on the straights it’s the bike that has to be powerful.
“Suzuki has worked, on the engine, and I don’t know if I will overtake some Ducatis [on Saturday], but I think that they improved. That’s always important, to find improvements.”
Mir is in fifth place and teammate Alex Rins is in third rank as of lunchtime on day one. In addition, the duo is in the center of the top speed rankings.
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