Mir: “I never felt like a second rider, don’t care who will be my partner”

Mir will have a new teammate at Repsol Honda in 2024, after Marc Marquez secured his stunning move to Gresini Ducati earlier today.

Marquez, who managed to facilitate a move out of Honda a year before his deal was set to expire, has agreed a one-year contract with Gresini.

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But what the move has done is caused Honda to look for a big name to put alongside Mir, who admitted he doesn't care who that will be ahead of this weekend’s Indonesian GP.  

“I don’t care,” said Mir. “Honestly, I don’t care who will be my partner. Of course, as a preference, I will always ask for a fast rider with experience that will help us grow a little bit the project. But I don’t have a preference.”

Mir, who is in first year with Honda, has had a very rocky season aboard the RC213V which has been the worst package on the grid.

A bike that many always believed went in one direction with regards to development - and by that we mean in the favour of Marquez - however, Mir has squashed such claims by admitting he never felt like Marquez was given preferential treatment. 

Mir said: “Honestly, with the half a year we made together I could see that the development of the bike was not for one rider. 

“I could see everything I needed [to see] and if I needed one bike that Marc didn’t like I would have it and I was able to have something different than Marc. 

“It means I never felt like a second rider. I think that this doesn’t exist in official teams anymore. In the private teams I don’t know. But in the official ones, no.”

Marquez leaving ‘will not change so much’

Although replacing Marquez is likely to be an impossible task because of the sheer amount of  success he’s had with the Japanese brand, Mir feels it can be done. 

“It will not change so much, it’s true that something will change because, in terms of next year, I will be the one who probably decides what bike we should take or what direction we should take,” began Mir. 

“So this is positive because I don’t have to fight with someone else for it. So that means if it is good, then it’s good, if it’s not, then it’s not good. 

“That is a positive point that I can see. But with Marc this year I could see that his comments were always the same, the development was always guided in one direction.”