How Mir became Suzuki’s humble MotoGP hero

November has seemingly been a month of feel-good stories. The Americans voted for hope and a better future in the Presidential election; scientists have started to point us in the direction out of this COVID-19 nightmare with the imminent emergence of effective vaccines; AC/DC reunited its 'Back In Black' line-up for a new record; and Joan Mir ended a 20-year wait for Suzuki when he was crowned MotoGP world champion last Sunday in the Valencia Grand Prix.

That the 2020 season has been wrapped up a round early is perhaps the most surprising thing to have happened in this wild campaign. But when you look at the scorecard, that Mir has taken the title with a round in hand isn't that much of a shock.

After a poor start, with a crash in the Spanish GP and a collision with Tech3's Iker Lecuona at the Czech round, his take from the first three races was just 11 points. By contrast, then-championship leader Fabio Quartararo had 59 following his double victory at Jerez.

However, consistency was something which largely eluded the grid - a result of Michelin's 2020 tyre construction and the condensed COVID-hit calendar. Quartararo only scored one more win and just one other top five. Andrea Dovizioso didn't get near a podium after his Austrian GP win, while Maverick Vinales' form was as wildly inconsistent as Yamaha stablemate Quartararo's on the 2020 M1.

Franco Morbidelli on the 2019 Petronas SRT Yamaha arguably was one of the most consistent riders in the field, but his three wins were backed up by misfortune at the Andalusian round with an engine issue; then there was the massive shunt with Johann Zarco in Austria, which had a knock-on effect in his Styrian race.

Mir, meanwhile, climbed onto the podium for the first time in the Austrian GP. From then on, he scored five other podiums and a victory in the European GP. Suzuki team-mate Alex Rins' podium form came too late in the season ultimately, as the early part of his year was hindered by a nasty shoulder injury. All of this meant Mir's seventh at Valencia on Sunday was enough to seal the deal - though he admitted his race was "a nightmare".

Doing so on Suzuki's 100th anniversary and its 60th year in racing, Mir joins an elite list of Barry Sheene (1976-1977), Marco Lucchinelli (1981), Franco Uncini (1982), Kevin Schwantz (1993) and Kenny Roberts Jr (2000) as the only premier class champions for the Japanese marque.

"Joan has been incredible, I think we are in front of somebody special with Joan," Suzuki team boss Davide Brivio said on Sunday, admitting he couldn't have scripted the backdrop of his squad's first title in two decades.

Once he'd figuring out how to ride the Suzuki, Mir's talent took over, but so did his wicked intelligence

Brivio has helmed Suzuki since it returned to MotoGP full-time in 2015. From the very beginning, the Italian - who was instrumental in bringing Valentino Rossi to Yamaha in 2004, when the grand prix legend ended a 12-year title drought for the company - has strongly believed in young talent. He brought Vinales up from a single year in Moto2 for 2015; in 2017 he signed Rins and secured Mir after his single Moto2 campaign in 2018 with Marc VDS.

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Mir was hot property, with Honda keen for his signature. But it wasn't willing to partner him with Marc Marquez, whereas Suzuki was committed to giving him the full factory support he desired. The GSX-RR even in 2019 was a strong, rider-friendly package, but Suzuki didn't - and still doesn't - have a satellite package to help gather data and speed up development. So, it was still a risk.

"We probably sacrificed one year in Moto2," Mir said. "I would've liked to do two years in Moto2 honestly, but the situation wasn't the ideal one. So I think that we took the correct decision to go up to MotoGP after the first year in Moto2."

Mir's first season in the premier class was difficult, admitting earlier this year there wasn't many times when he could see the light at the end of the tunnel. He scored just one top five all year, while a violent testing crash at Brno left him sidelined for two rounds and stunted his progress. Nevertheless, Suzuki was convinced and signed him up for another two years - cutting off an avenue Ducati was hoping to explore for its 2021 line-up before committing to Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia.

Suzuki, of course, had every right to back Mir. His first outing in grand prix racing as a replacement for the injured Hiroki Ono at Leopard Racing in the 2015 Moto3 Australian GP had him running as high as sixth before he crashed out. Making his full-time debut in 2016, he took his maiden win at the Red Bull Ring mid-season. Ten victories followed in 2017 as he romped to the title before stepping up to Moto2, where he scored four podiums on the Marc VDS Kalex.

Such a rapid rise also came on the backdrop of him having to constantly adapt to the machinery, going from KTM in 2016 to Honda in 2017, then to Kalex in 2018 and then a Suzuki MotoGP bike. If it didn't come in 2019, it was only a matter of time. As Mir put it, "in 2019, with more effort, I went slower: now, with less, I go faster".

Once he'd figuring out how to ride the Suzuki, Mir's talent took over, but so did his wicked intelligence. After a maiden victory was snatched from him by a red flag in the Styrian GP, another opportunity to win for one reason or another - but generally average qualifyings - remained elusive. But while keen to break that duck, he knew winning one battle wouldn't determine the outcome of the war.

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And as his rivals faltered, he continued to tally up rostrums, taking the lead in the standings by six points for the first time after finishing third at the Aragon GP, while Quartararo struggled to 18th with a tyre issue.

"Honestly, I started to think about the championship when Joan was suddenly leading the championship, which was a couple of races ago," Brivio added. "Then I say 'OK, we can't hide anymore'. Now we are dancing, we have to dance."

From there, his gap swelled to 14 with another third in the Teruel GP, before his European GP victory vaulted him 37 points clear of Morbidelli and Rins. All the groundwork he'd laid through being, as Alex Marquez put it, "more intelligent than the rest" in banking the maximum points on offer to him at any one time ultimately spring-boarded him to title glory when the opportunity to win finally came his way.

That his championship came with a rather meek seventh is perhaps the ultimate display of everything Mir showed throughout 2020: he knew exactly what he had to do given the permutations, which in this case was a top 10 with Morbidelli winning the race, and no more.

Mir, of course, had to contend with claims his championship is devalued without six-time champion Marc Marquez present. But as he pointed out, nobody "kidnapped" the Honda rider. He crashed fighting for a title and injured himself, which is a consequence all must face in motorsport. And, Mir went on, the pressure of the 2020 title race was heightened by something which never hung over Marquez's title wins like the sword of Damocles.

"The truth about this year was especially difficult because we don't have only the pressure on track, we also have pressure at home to not get the virus," Mir said. "So, it was especially difficult to manage. Thank you to all my crew that managed it in the perfect way."

"People who can't pay their rent because of the coronavirus and all of this, these type of people who can't bring food home, this is the real pressure. When I hear questions about pressure, I think about this and I say 'I don't have pressure, this is my job'" Joan Mir

And Mir's awareness of the virus has stood him out as being someone wise beyond his 23 years. When asked after his European GP win about the pressures of fighting for the championship, he noted: "Here, for sure we have pressure. We are playing with our lives and for sure we have to be really focused on what we have to do.

"But it's our job. I think what is real pressure, that luckily I don't have... I have good pressure, because if this year I win [it] will be super-good for me, but if I don't win it will be also good.

"But people who can't pay their rent because of the coronavirus and all of this, these type of people who can't bring food home, this is the real pressure. When I hear questions about pressure, I think about this and I say, 'I don't have pressure, this is my job, I will be super-good anyway'. I am privileged."

And when Jorge Lorenzo somewhat clumsily asked him how he'd celebrate his title win, Mir replied: "This situation [with COVID] makes the celebrations a bit difficult. I would like to do it in Mallorca, but we have to be responsible because there are people dying for this reason and it's a difficult situation and we cannot celebrate."

In a world where grown adults cry over the 'injustice' of wearing face masks and people believe house parties are fine right now, 23-year-old Mir makes them all look like pathetic children.

The world is changing and embracing a more inclusive society, and Mir is typical of this new wave of young MotoGP rider coming through the ranks with their feet firmly on the ground. Mir keeps himself to himself, and is always charming with the media. And in the pressure cooker environment of a world championship, where egos run rampant, Mir's very much aware of those around him.

When asked by Autosport how much he credits team-mate Rins for his title for the work he has done at Suzuki since 2017, Mir replied: "Of course, he's part of the team. Him, Sylvain [Guintoli, test rider], [Andrea] Iannone in his time [2017-2018]. The first two riders in Suzuki, Maverick and Aleix [Espargaro, 2015-2016].

"These riders and the work of course of Suzuki year by year, we were making the bike better and better and [that] made the difference. For sure Alex is the one that stayed with Suzuki longer and the one that gave more information, he was always a really good team-mate.

"On track he showed a lot of respect for me and for Suzuki. And for sure always he was my first rival. Last year, this year, I always wanted to stay in front of him and he also. And this is part of the success to make Suzuki to be on the podium almost every race, because you see that when the team-mate is pushing, you push on the limit."

Mir's talent from his Moto3 days was obvious and many already tipped him for stardom. That he's MotoGP champion just five years into his word championship career is testament to this, but also the belief Suzuki had in the Spaniard, and also in him for backing the Japanese marque to provide him the opportunity to win the title - even if it came sooner than he expected.

But Mir isn't just the best MotoGP rider of 2020. Arguably, he is the model rider: Wildly fast, with a riding style married to his bike, intelligent but immensely thoughtful, down to Earth and a thoroughly decent person. And he has so much more maturing to do before he is "fully built" as a rider.

As Brivio noted of Suzuki's new hero: "If this is the beginning, we are in a good situation."