Joan Mir has claimed that he is “in another phase” emotionally as he is attempting to remain optimistic in order to cope with Honda’s persistent MotoGP struggles.
After Suzuki’s shocking departure from MotoGP at the end of the previous season, Joan Mir joined Honda’s factory squad for 2023 to ride alongside Marc Marquez.
The season opening grand prix, which Mir won in Portugal, was the only round the 2020 world champion managed to score points, securing all five of his season’s points so far.
After crashing in the sprint and retiring from the Italian Grand Prix due to a hand injury sustained in an incident during second practice, Mir missed the Argentina Grand Prix. He also missed the German and Dutch rounds due to the same issue as he was recovering from surgery.
Mir claimed that even though it had been mentally challenging, he had now turned a new page in his remarks following the British Grand Prix.
“It was difficult but honestly now, I’m in another phase,” Mir said. “The first part of the season after the stop was very difficult to manage, but now my mentality has changed a bit.
“I’m trying to keep the positive things from the weekend and that’s it, do what I can do and we will have the correct package that I will feel more comfortable with. We will see what we can do.”
Mir’s return to MotoGP racing at Silverstone was difficult; after finishing 17th in the sprint race on Saturday, he crashed out of the grand prix on Sunday.
He encountered a number of problems with his front ride height device and a technical issue with his RC213V throughout the race.
“First of all, I had the problem at the start that I couldn’t engage the front device,” Mir added. “I tried four times and that’s why I went one row further because I wanted to try one more time and then I came back and started without the device.
“There was a problem there that we have to understand, because I made the same thing and it was not really working.
“Then, there was something strange on the bike that every time I was braking, the rear was locking every time I moved down a gear.
“I almost crashed in the old Turn 1 due to this problem, I almost had a bad one, and then I went full fast in the gravel and I crashed on the gravel. So that was our Sunday.
“I feel something mechanical but I don’t know at the moment. That was our race, the two laps that I did.”
