The Suzuki rider was proclaimed MotoGP world champion in 2020 at just 23 years old and in his second season in the premier class. Mir did it just five years and a month after his World Championship debut, as a substitute at the 2015 Moto3 Australian Grand Prix .
The Balearic’s progression has been meteoric since then, winning the title of the smallest category in his second full season with 10 wins and breaking the points record. After a single year in Moto2, in 2019 he reached MotoGP and the following year he added his second world championship.
The #36 only won one race in 2020 and took the title on a regular basis, the same strategy that he has tried to follow this year without success. Weighed down by a GSX-RR that has lagged behind in 2021, Mir arrives at the last three races of the year without mathematical options to revalidate.
Despite having been the man to beat throughout the year, Mir assures that he has not felt any pressure and compares this situation with his years before reaching the World Cup.
“One thing I have is that I am very realistic,” commented the man from Palma on the official MotoGP podcast. “When I saw that I was able to be at the same level as the rest, I thought I could be the best. Then I started competing in the Spanish Championship”.
(Before reading on, click on the link or on the image to see the photos of Joan Mir’s 2021 season in MotoGP)
“I remember my father didn’t have money to pay a team and say ‘ok, we pay and then you have the opportunity’. I had to develop that ability and that talent from scratch, because if I was able to win a championship, then from another championship they see you and a team is interested in you. If you win you have the opportunity to move up in category, so that’s why I took it very seriously from a very young age, because I didn’t have the opportunity to go to a team and pay. So I had to win in all the championships, which was quite difficult.
“It’s a lot of responsibility. Now, when they say that I have the pressure of the MotoGP title, I don’t think this is pressure, that was pressure! If I wasn’t able to win with a bike that wasn’t the best, the expectations weren’t the best and then nobody hired you for the following season. I couldn’t afford to spend two years in the same category, but I had to prove it”.
“It wasn’t fun. The races weren’t fun because they were so intense. But this is part of progress, and I love progress and the process. I did enjoy the process, but not the races in those years. I was able to enjoy more”, he stressed.
