Joan Mir Admits To Having Delayed His MotoGP Comeback
Categories: MotoGP
August 16th, 2023
After his comeback at Silverstone, Joan Mir admits he could have returned sooner – if he had wanted to.
Repsol Honda rider Joan Mir injured his hand at the Italian Grand Prix in Mugello. Since for the Spaniard in 2023 anyway “nothing countable” to get, he extends his injury break without further ado.
While the ex-Suzuki rider was still celebrating a surprise world championship title win in 2020, he lies in 25th place in the standings in 2023, still behind test riders such as Lorenzo Savadori and Dani Pedrosa.
Although Mir had received permission from doctors to start at the Dutch Grand Prix before the summer break, the Spaniard spared himself participation.
Speaking to DAZN, the 2020 World Champion admits: “With certain restrictions, I could certainly have come back earlier. If I had been fighting for something countable, that would have happened.”
“But I certainly wouldn’t have celebrated any major successes during that time. It was a time for me to switch off a bit. I needed that. I was really at my limit.”
2023 is likely to be the toughest year of the 25-year-old’s MotoGP career. The fact that he is spending it with the Repsol Honda team, which in a normal world would be a title contender, increases the pressure on the Spaniard all the more.
“Putting away the big pressure in MotoGP and at the same time having no reward for it is difficult for me. For some time now I’ve only been experiencing the negative sides of our sport: crashes, injuries, the stress of travel.”
“We riders have to consider ourselves lucky to be able to do this job, but we are also under a lot of pressure. I, therefore, started working with a sports psychologist before the summer break,” explains Mir.
“I was thinking about ending my career,” Mir reveals. “But I was sure that I would soon be sorry. If I step down, I have to be convinced that I won’t regret it in the future. That time hasn’t come yet. I have to keep gritting my teeth because I want to keep going.”
