Why Mir shouldn't obsess over winning in his hunt for the MotoGP title

For Joan Mir to bring the premier-class crown back to Suzuki after a 20-year wait, without winning a single race in the process, would be the perfect encapsulation of a bizarre season.

For the Hamamatsu factory, there could hardly be a better year to celebrate success in the MotoGP World Championship than 2020 - its centenary year and the 60th anniversary of its first entry into the series.

For those reasons alone, as he attempts to put Suzuki on top of the world some two decades after Kenny Roberts Jr last managed it in 2000, Mir would be more than justified in taking a cautious approach to defending his 14-point lead over closest rival Fabio Quartararo in the final three races of the season before the chequered flag falls for the final time in Portugal at the end of next month.

At the same time, you would have to think that the fact he's not managed a win so far in his relatively short MotoGP career is still something of a monkey on his back. Mir himself recognises that the desire to stand on the top step of the podium is there, but - to coin a Spanish phrase - it would be foolish to ruin a good steak by rushing the next bite.

"To win a grand prix is one of my objectives, but the main one is to win the championship," says Mir, whose points advantage stands at 19 over Maverick Vinales and 25 over Franco Morbidelli.

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"If trying to win a race means risking my options of the title, then clearly it's not worth it. We have to do things right. If I have the opportunity [to win a GP] I will go for it. But if it means attempting something crazy, then it is better not to try because we are approaching the end of the season and a DNF could cost us heavily."

The Mallorcan's pragmatic approach was in evidence last Sunday in the Teruel GP at Aragon. There, he tallied up his sixth podium of the campaign - the most of any rider this season - in third to extend his championship advantage.

"When Joan moved into third place he had the option to go for second but he realised that the sky was clouding over and the track temperature was dropping - from 26 degrees to 15, to be precise," Suzuki's team manager Davide Brivio tells Autosport. "He weighed up that situation and decided not to risk a crash because he knew that the most he could gain was one position."

It is also worth pointing out that Mir and his team are convinced they would have won in Austria in the Styrian Grand Prix if it wasn't for an "irresponsible" decision from Vinales to stay on track despite knowing that he was running out of front brake. The inevitable duly happened and he had to jump from his bike at 140mph when it failed, forcing a red flag situation when Mir was 2.4 seconds clear at the front.

But, without fresh tyres for the restarted race, he slipped to fourth at the finish with KTM's Pol Espargaro - who led onto the final lap before being shuffled down to third at the final corner - admitting afterwards that "it was not our race, it was Mir's race".

The judicious approach shown in Aragon is strikingly mature from a 23-year-old with just five years of world championship experience and a mere 83 GPs under his belt. In MotoGP, only Tech3 rookie Iker Lecuona has less (67) and - unlike many others on the grid - it is hard to remember even a single moment where Mir has lost his cool or spoken out of turn.

There can be few better indicators of his personality than this. Within Suzuki and among those closest to him, a young man who "you don't have to tell much" is revered for his astuteness and good judgement.

The reduction and restructuring of the calendar required a completely new strategy from the teams and riders, as consistency and solidity took precedence over speed as the main requirements for success

"Joan is very clear about what he wants and he is completely focused on it," continues Brivio. "When he arrives in the paddock he knows that this is his place of work and he acts accordingly.

"In any case, up to now we haven't thought about the championship much. Obviously, he is aware that he is leading but let's say that we have not planned any weekend with that in mind. Perhaps from now on we will start to take it more into consideration."

Every rider on the grid knew full well before the season started that the key to 2020 would be consistency and the ability to minimise mistakes. The fact that there have been eight different winners from 11 races so far shows that nobody has quite managed to achieve the required level of regularity. Mir has collected just 137 points from the 275 available so far - a strike rate of just 49.8%. By the same stage last year, Marc Marquez was on 230 points (83.6%) while in 2018 he had 201 (73%).

The high level of performance demonstrated by the GSX-RR at the majority of circuits has allowed Suzuki's number 36 to score six podiums from the past eight races, including five from the last six. The focus that took him to the Moto3 title in 2017 will now be required for the final run of a season that will always be remembered for the impact of coronavirus - though Mir insists his approach heading into next weekend's European Grand Prix won't immediately change.

"I think now more than ever it would be a big mistake [to think solely of the title], because of course we all know that we can make any mistake, and now even more," Mir said at Aragon. "But we have to be fast, and always when you try to be fast you risk and you can make a mistake.

"The important thing is to find a balance on that and to risk in the moment... for example in this race - it was a moment that I thought I was able to catch [the top two] riders.

"But then I saw I was not, so why do I have to continue pushing, risking a crash if I already know I can't win this race? This is a little bit the point. We don't have to think about the championship in some moments, like in the first laps I was not thinking at all about the championship. But then it was a moment that maybe yes, maybe I thought about it. So, [you need] to find a compromise."

The reduction and restructuring of the calendar required a completely new strategy from the teams and riders, as consistency and solidity took precedence over speed as the main requirements for success. Lower track temperatures and a new construction Michelin rear tyre shook up the order even more.

For all of those reasons, if Mir can become the first MotoGP world champion ever to take the title without winning a race (Emilio Alzamora managed it in 1999 in the 125cc class), it would be the perfect way to sum up this remarkable 2020 season.