Mir: Sharing garage with Marquez ‘a true challenge’, calls him ‘the best rider’

Crowned world champion in 2020 before Fabio Quartararo and Francesco Bagnaia also won their maiden MotoGP titles in 2021 and 22 respectively, Mir has failed to win a race since his title-winning campaign with Suzuki.

But while a lack of wins has been evident for the Spaniard, as has the regular competitiveness needed to challenge for such results, Mir has remained one of the fastest riders during that time, as highlighted by his P3 finish in the 2021 standings.

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Mir, who joined Repsol Honda after Suzuki’s shock decision to end its participation in MotoGP beyond 2022, moves to the most successful team in premier class history, although without Marquez firing on all cylinders due to injury and a RC213V that has lacked pace over the last few seasons, Honda find themselves in a similar situation to Mir, which is struggling to fight for wins on a consistent basis. 

With that said, the addition of Mir alongside Marquez means Repsol Honda has one of the strongest rider line-ups, if not the outright best.

A challenge he wasn’t expecting during the early part of last season as a contract renewal with Suzuki was very close, Mir is expecting his battles with the eight-time world champion to be ‘difficult’. 

"To share the box with Marc is a true challenge, because he’s the best rider on the grid and the one with the most titles,” said Mir. “This is something that can be really good in one way and probably more difficult in another. 

"You can share some data with him and you can learn a lot from the inside, but if you don’t perform in the way that you want, you always have a tough rider on the other side of the garage.

"During the test I could make some laps with him and also share some data. He knows how these bike works perfectly. 

"He’s able to ride in a way that the bike asks for: going really fast into the corner, which is probably faster than the bikes that I have tried in the past. 

"Then, the way the bike gives you the power is different compared to the ones that I tried before. I have to get used to it and Marc knows how to do it really well."

Mir’s relationship with Marquez has not always been the smoothest as complaints have been made on several occasions by Mir due to Marquez attempting to gain a tow during qualifying and practice sessions.

Along with Bagnaia, Mir has been on the receiving end of such tactics from Marquez more often than other riders, however, working together with his new team-mate is going to be crucial going forward according to the Spaniard - something which already began during last month’s post-season test at Valencia. 

Mir added: "Chatting after the test is something normal. When a new rider comes to the box and tries the bike, you want to hear what his feelings are. In this case, we shared the direction that we wanted to follow. 

"Pushing together in the same direction is really important, instead of each rider going on their own. We want to take the correct way together, and in this case, we were chatting about this."