Mir responds to critics after MotoGP Japanese GP podium

Joan Mir says it is “easy to hide behind the phone” and criticise MotoGP riders after securing his maiden podium with Honda in last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.

Mir finished third behind factory Ducati duo Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez at Motegi, ending a 1,422-day drought stretching back to his last podium finish with Suzuki at the 2021 Portuguese GP.

Despite clinching the 2020 title on merit with his consistency, Mir faced skepticism from critics who questioned whether his championship was due to luck and a lack of strong competition on the grid.

After Suzuki’s departure at the end of 2022, Mir moved to Honda alongside Marquez but found it hard to tame an uncompetitive RC213V, bagging just one top-10 finish in his first two years with HRC.

However, with Honda making major strides with its bike this season, Mir was finally able to deliver on his potential in Japan, booking a spot on the front row in qualifying before finishing third in the race on Sunday.

Asked whether he is aware that some people do not respect him as a world champion, Mir emphasised that he has never lost sight of his accomplishments in MotoGP.

“In sport in general, you are what you did in your last race, but [that is] not particularly [the case] with me. I think everyone has the same problem,” he said. 

“It's very easy to hide behind the phone and to speak shit that doesn’t give any benefit to anyone. But in the end, I know what I achieved.

“The people who know a little bit about this world, and about sports in general, value everything as it is. It’s not that I was super good today and I was a disaster yesterday. 

“I cannot do much more. I think we are exposed to all these people, which is fantastic for one part, but on the other [hand] we are also exposed to critics and to haters. This is not changing my life. It has never changed anything.”

Joan Mir, Honda HRC

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

In his first season with Honda in 2023, Mir finished at the bottom of the standings, scoring just 26 points compared to 96 for Marquez.

Last year, he ended up 21st in the championship, beating the other factory Honda of team-mate Luca Marini, but finishing behind LCR duo Johann Zarco and Takaaki Nakagami.

His struggles over the past few years weighed so much on him that he briefly contemplated retiring from MotoGP before eventually signing a new two-year deal with Honda until the end of the current rule cycle.

As the RC213V became more competitive this year, his form also improved, and after retiring from 10 of the first 16 grands prix, he finally achieved his breakthrough in front of Honda’s top brass in Japan.

Mir admitted he hadn’t anticipated his struggles at Honda to last so long, but feels that a home podium was a deserved reward for the Sakura-based manufacturer, which had been working tirelessly to turn around its MotoGP programme.

“The reality is that it has been a very difficult period for me,” he said. “From the day we decided to move to Honda in a difficult period, we already knew that we could be without good results for a long time. But I could not imagine this amount of time. 

“The reality is that it has been a super difficult period. I just never gave up, trying - not always but sometimes - to see the positive things that were happening to us. 

“Now you can imagine how nice the taste of the podium is. I just enjoyed every lap of this race, fighting with these guys. It was a long time that I was not doing it [fight at the front]. 

“Just super happy for the team, they deserve a lot. Also, here in Japan, I cannot think of a better place to do our comeback. Just super happy for Honda. Thank you to them, they deserve it.”