JAKARTA - MotoGP 2023 will be Joan Mir's debut with his new team, Repsol Honda. After the new season with the new team, Mir admitted that he was not grandiose and tried to be realistic about his target.
Joan Mir officially became a part of Honda after parting ways with Suzuki. The reason is strong because the Japanese manufacturer decided to withdraw from MotoGP at the end of last season.
Together with Honda, who is his new club, Joan Mir will partner with eight-time world champion, Marc Marquez. Mir faced a challenge not only because he was a team with a champion rider, but also because Mir had to be able to achieve maximum results on Honda's motorbike which was later less competitive.
In the three consecutive years of the competition season, Repsol Honda has won only three races and has only taken the podium twice in the 2022 MotoGP.
Mir's presence as a new racer at Honda also indirectly presents a challenge for him to break a bad record.
Drivers who previously rode motorbikes from different manufacturers were often struggling to tame RC213V. Examples that can be taken when Jorge Lorenzo from Ducati and Pol Espargaro from KTM are unable to win.
Realizing the high expectations at Honda, Joan Mir is sure that it will take time and process before he can give the best results. Therefore he tried to be realistic.
"First, we have to be realistic," said Mir as quoted by The Race on Friday, January 6.
"We came at a difficult moment and the key was to quickly adapt to this bike and then try to build confidence, speed along the race-times."
"And then from the middle of the season trying to get closer to the podium, closer to good results. That's my target," added Mir.
Joan Mir himself has felt the sensation of riding a Honda motorcycle on a post season test in Valencia last November. As a result, Mir was in 18th place out of 23 riders on the last day of testing, his position was five grids behind Marc Marquez.
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