The 2020 world championship was severely hit by the pandemic, which brought a reduction in the number of races held (15), running up to five times on repeated tracks, which made it one of the most atypical ever held, adding to all this, in addition, the loss due to injury to Marc Márquez , the man who had won six of the last seven championships played until then.
Despite this, no one questioned the merit and legitimacy of the title won by Joan Mir , who in his second season in the premier class, at only 23 years old and with a team, Suzuki , which had not achieved it for two decades, was the pilot most regular and effective of the course.
In his first attempt to retain the crown, in 2021, Mir saw his attempts frustrated by the technical superiority of his rivals against Suzuki , a handicap that the Mallorcan detected from the beginning of the year.
In an exclusive interview, Motorsport.com asked the driver when he realized he wasn’t going to be able to defend the title he won in 2020.
“At the beginning of the season I realized that it would really cost. I saw that all (the manufacturers) had improved a lot and that there were areas that we had to improve. I realized that everyone had things that we did not have, there were differences in acceleration in many points and that it was going to cost us a lot”, admitted the runner.
One of the hardest moments for Mir occurred in the Emilia Romagna race, in which he suffered a crash on the second lap when he was running 18th.
The Mallorcan had to follow the race from his box, see how Pecco Bagnaia also fell and at that moment the transfer of the championship crown to Fabio Quartararo took place.
“The feeling did not come to me suddenly, but at that moment I felt somehow that it was like a defeat, because something was waiting for me this year that has not been fulfilled,” he recalls.
During the season, the lack of competitiveness of the Suzuki has led the rider to consider his next steps, Mir has a contract until the end of 2022, but right now he is not negotiating the renewal.
“In a certain way I feel that in my time with Suzuki I have not done everything, I have not given everything I could give. Yes, I have won. But I know that I can win in another way, I am obsessed with winning in another way. The year In the past I won for perseverance, for being smart, for different things, but not for being the fastest. I would like to fight to be the fastest with Suzuki. It is a challenge that I have”, he points out before acknowledging, however, that he feels a certain curiosity for trying to achieve that challenge with another factory.
“Yes, maybe yes, but later. I’m still very young,” settles the 2020 champion.
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