Joan Mir

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Mir and the second or maternal family name is Mayrata.

Joan Mir Mayrata (Catalan: [ʒu'an mir məj'ratə], born 1 September 1997) is a Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle racer riding for the Repsol Honda Team in the MotoGP World Championship. Mir is best known for winning the 2020 MotoGP World Championship with Suzuki.^[1] He is the fourth Spanish rider to win the premier class title after Àlex Crivillé, Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Márquez, and the second Mallorcan after Lorenzo. Mir also won the 2017 Moto3 World Championship title with Leopard Racing.^[2]

Joan Mir
Mir in 2023
Nationality	Spanish
Born	(1997-09-01) 1 September 1997 (age 27) Palma, Spain
Current team	Repsol Honda Team
Bike number	36
Motorcycle racing career statistics MotoGP World Championship Active years 2019– Manufacturers Suzuki (2019–2022) Honda (2023–) Championships 1 (2020) 2023 championship position 22nd (26 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 98 1 13 0 1 605 Moto2 World Championship Active years 2018 Manufacturers Kalex Championships 0 2018 championship position 6th (155 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 18 0 4 0 1 155 Moto3 World Championship Active years 2015–2017 Manufacturers Honda (2015, 2017) KTM (2016) Championships 1 (2017) 2017 championship position 1st (341 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 37 11 16 2 5 485

He became the first Suzuki rider to win the title since Kenny Roberts Jr. in 2000, the first non-Honda or non-Yamaha rider to win the title since Ducati rider Casey Stoner in 2007, as well as the first Moto3 world champion to win the premier class title.

Career

Early career

Palma-born Mir competed for two seasons in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup in 2013 and 2014, finishing with three wins and six podiums as runner-up to Jorge Martín in 2014. Mir contested the CEV Moto3 Junior World Championship in 2015. Mir won four of the first six races, but faded towards the end of the season, and ultimately finished fourth in the championship.

Moto3 World Championship

Mir made his Grand Prix début in 2015 with Leopard Racing at Phillip Island replacing the injured Hiroki Ono. Mir started 18th on the grid but failed to finish the race after an incident with John McPhee.

In 2016 Mir competed full-time in the Moto3 World Championship with Leopard Racing, partnering Fabio Quartararo and Andrea Locatelli. He achieved his first Grand Prix pole position and victory in just his 11th start at the Austrian round. He achieved a further two podiums in San Marino and Valencia. Mir finished the championship in 5th position as rookie of the year, scoring 144 points.

Mir in 2017

He remained for a second season in 2017 with Leopard Racing and dominated the class, taking 10 wins and 13 podiums from 18 races, only failing to score points at the Japanese round. His only pole position start of the season came at the Malaysian round. He finished 93 points ahead of his nearest rival, Romano Fenati, to win the Moto3 championship.

Moto2 World Championship

In 2018, Mir moved up to Moto2 with Marc VDS Racing Team, after signing a three-year deal with the team.^[3] He finished 3rd in France and Italy, and finished 2nd in Germany and Australia, ending the season with four podiums and 155 points, 6th place in the rider's championship, and winning rookie of the year.^[4]

MotoGP World Championship

Team Suzuki Ecstar (2019–2022)

2019

Mir chasing Jorge Lorenzo at the 2019 Argentine Grand Prix

In mid 2018, it was announced that Mir would end his contract with Marc VDS two years prematurely, in order to move up to the premier class with the Suzuki factory team on a two-year deal to replace the outgoing Andrea Iannone.^[5] He became just the second rider to be promoted to MotoGP after a lone season in Moto2, after Maverick Viñales. In his rookie season in 2019, he achieved consistent top-10 finishes but missed two rounds due to a pulmonary contusion suffered in a crash in testing at Brno. He was replaced by Suzuki test rider Sylvain Guintoli.^[6] Mir achieved a season-best finish of 5th place in Australia. He finished the season with 92 points, 12th in the overall standings, and as the second best rookie, behind former Moto3 Leopard Racing teammate Fabio Quartararo.

2020

Before the delayed start to the 2020 season, Suzuki announced that Mir had been signed for a further two years, ensuring his future with the team through at least 2022.^[7] Mir had a rough start to the season, crashing out of two of the first three rounds. However, he quickly found his rhythm and became a consistent podium finisher, achieving a podium spot in five of the next seven rounds (three 2nd places in Austria, Emilia-Romagna and Catalunya, and two 3rd-place finishes in San Marino and Aragon). Inconsistent finishes from his title rivals such as 3-time race winner Quartararo and Maverick Viñales meant that after 10 of 14 rounds, Mir led the championship standings despite not having won a race until that point.^[8]

During the tenth round of the 2020 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season, at the 2020 French motorcycle Grand Prix, Mir lost his balance on entering a left turn during a practice session and slid on his side for about 50 metres before managing to use the momentum as he entered the gravel pit to seamlessly regain his footing and fluidly transfer his momentum into a running action.^[9] In the race that followed, Mir finished 11th, scoring 5 points.

A further podium finish in Teruel and poor results from Quartararo, Viñales and Andrea Dovizioso saw Mir extend his championship advantage to 14 points over second-place Quartararo with three races remaining.^[10] At the European Grand Prix, staged at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo near Valencia, Mir took his maiden win, beating his teammate Álex Rins, who finished in second place. With Quartararo falling early in the race and only able to salvage 2 points, Mir took a commanding 37-point lead over both his rivals with only 2 rounds remaining.^[11][12] The following week at the Valencian Community Grand Prix at the same circuit, Mir finished in 7th place, while Rins managed only 4th and Quartararo crashed out, crowning Mir the 2020 MotoGP riders' champion.^[13]

2021

Mir at the 2021 Algarve Grand Prix

Mir started the 2021 season with back to back top ten performances in Qatar. Despite qualifying tenth during the first race and forgetting to engage his Suzuki's launch control at the start he managed to work his way up into second place on the last lap of the race before getting passed on the back straight by Ducati riders Johann Zarco and Francesco Bagnaia, leading to a 4th-place finish.^[14] In the second race the following week Mir qualified in the middle of the field and finished 7th behind teammate Rins, but the race was most notable for Mir's confrontation with factory Ducati rider, Jack Miller. The confrontation started when Mir attempted an overtake in which he had to pick up his bike mid corner, nearly forcing Miller off the track. Miller later collided with Mir heading down the back straight, and after the race Mir was highly critical of Miller and argued that the Australian's actions were intentional.^[15] Two weeks later in Portimao Mir started ninth and worked his way up to finish 3rd behind Fabio Quartararo and Bagnaia, earning Suzuki's first podium for the season. Mir achieved a 5th place at Jerez before a crash at Le Mans in wet conditions, and his second podium in 3rd place in Mugello. Catalunya saw Mir finish in 5th once again, but was promoted to 4th following Fabio Quartararo’s 5-second penalty for removing his chest protector and riding with his leathers open. Following a 9th place at Sachsenring, Mir finished 3rd in Assen, earning his third podium of the year, as the season went into the summer break. At the grid returned to race for the double round in Spielberg, Austria, Mir collected his fourth podium of the season with a 2nd-place finish behind rookie Ducati rider Jorge Martín, who took his maiden MotoGP victory. Mir would finish 3rd in Aragón, and replicated his best result of the season with a 2nd-place finish in Portimao, before closing off the year with a 4th-place finish in Valencia, the season ender race. He finished 3rd in the rider's championship with 208 points, 44 points behind Francesco Bagnaia in second, and 70 points behind World Champion Fabio Quartararo.

2022

Mir missed a few rounds due to injuries sustained in Austria. Mir secured 4 consecutive top six finishes in the first four rounds but countless DNF’s and injuries in Austria hampered his season, finishing 15th with only 87 points.

Repsol Honda Team (from 2023)

2023

Following Suzuki's departure from MotoGP, Mir signed with Repsol Honda for the 2023 season. He partnered six-time premier class champion Marc Márquez.^[16]

Career statistics

Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Pos	Pts
2013	AME1 9	AME2 18	JER1 17	JER2 12	ASS1 10	ASS2 11	SAC1 11	SAC2 4	BRN 13	SIL1 5	SIL2 2	MIS 6	ARA1 4	ARA2 6	9th	107
2014	JER1 4	JER1 1	MUG Ret	ASS1 5	ASS2 9	SAC1 2	SAC2 4	BRN1 5	BRN2 1	SIL1 2	SIL2 5	MIS 3	ARA1 1	ARA2 Ret	2nd	197

FIM CEV Moto3 Junior World Championship

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos	Pts
2013	MIR Racing	CAT1	CAT2	ARA	ALB1	ALB2	NAV	VAL1 26	VAL2 15	JER				40th	1
2015	Honda	ALG 1	LMS Ret	CAT1 Ret	CAT2 1	ARA1 1	ARA2 1							4th	153
	Ioda Honda							ALB Ret	NAV 3	JER1 3	JER2 23
	KTM											VAL1 2	VAL2 15

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

By season

Season	Class	Motorcycle	Team	Race	Win	Podium	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd	WCh
2015	Moto3	Honda	Leopard Racing	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC	–
2016	Moto3	KTM	Leopard Racing	18	1	3	1	2	144	5th	–
2017	Moto3	Honda	Leopard Racing	18	10	13	1	3	341	1st	1
2018	Moto2	Kalex	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	18	0	4	0	1	155	6th	–
2019	MotoGP	Suzuki	Team Suzuki Ecstar	17	0	0	0	0	92	12th	–
2020	MotoGP	Suzuki	Team Suzuki Ecstar	14	1	7	0	0	171	1st	1
2021	MotoGP	Suzuki	Team Suzuki Ecstar	18	0	6	0	1	208	3rd	–
2022	MotoGP	Suzuki	Team Suzuki Ecstar	16	0	0	0	0	87	15th	–
2023	MotoGP	Honda	Repsol Honda Team	15	0	0	0	0	26	22nd	–
2024	MotoGP	Honda	Repsol Honda Team	18	0	0	0	0	21*	21st*	–
Total				153	12	33	2	7	1245		2

By class

Class	Seasons	1st GP	1st Pod	1st Win	Race	Win	Podiums	Pole	FLap	Pts	WChmp
Moto3	2015–2017	2015 Australia	2016 Austria	2016 Austria	37	11	16	2	5	485	1
Moto2	2018	2018 Qatar	2018 France		18	0	4	0	1	155	0
MotoGP	2019–present	2019 Qatar	2020 Austria	2020 Europe	98	1	13	0	1	605	1
Total	2015–present				153	12	33	2	7	1245	2

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pos	Pts
2015	Moto3	Honda	QAT	AME	ARG	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GER	IND	CZE	GBR	RSM	ARA	JPN	AUS Ret	MAL	VAL			NC	0
2016	Moto3	KTM	QAT 12	ARG 5	AME Ret	SPA 6	FRA 25	ITA 7	CAT 8	NED 8	GER Ret	AUT 1	CZE 8	GBR 9	RSM 3	ARA 5	JPN 9	AUS Ret	MAL Ret	VAL 2			5th	144
2017	Moto3	Honda	QAT 1	ARG 1	AME 8	SPA 3	FRA 1	ITA 7	CAT 1	NED 9	GER 1	CZE 1	AUT 1	GBR 5	RSM 2	ARA 1	JPN 17	AUS 1	MAL 1	VAL 2			1st	341
2018	Moto2	Kalex	QAT 11	ARG 7	AME 4	SPA 11	FRA 3	ITA 3	CAT Ret	NED 5	GER 2	CZE Ret	AUT 8	GBR C	RSM 5	ARA 6	THA Ret	JPN 11	AUS 2	MAL 10	VAL Ret		6th	155
2019	MotoGP	Suzuki	QAT 8	ARG Ret	AME 17	SPA Ret	FRA 16	ITA 12	CAT 6	NED 8	GER 7	CZE Ret	AUT	GBR	RSM 8	ARA 14	THA 7	JPN 8	AUS 5	MAL 10	VAL 7		12th	92
2020	MotoGP	Suzuki	SPA Ret	ANC 5	CZE Ret	AUT 2	STY 4	RSM 3	EMI 2	CAT 2	FRA 11	ARA 3	TER 3	EUR 1	VAL 7	POR Ret							1st	171
2021	MotoGP	Suzuki	QAT 4	DOH 7	POR 3	SPA 5	FRA Ret	ITA 3	CAT 4	GER 9	NED 3	STY 2	AUT 4	GBR 9	ARA 3	RSM 6	AME 8	EMI Ret	ALR 2	VAL 4			3rd	208
2022	MotoGP	Suzuki	QAT 6	INA 6	ARG 4	AME 4	POR Ret	SPA 6	FRA Ret	ITA Ret	CAT 4	GER Ret	NED 8	GBR Ret	AUT Ret	RSM	ARA DNS	JPN	THA	AUS 18	MAL 19	VAL 6	15th	87
2023	MotoGP	Honda	POR 11	ARG DNS	AME Ret	SPA Ret	FRA Ret	ITA DNS	GER	NED	GBR Ret	AUT Ret	CAT 17	RSM Ret	IND 5	JPN 12	INA Ret	AUS Ret	THA 12	MAL Ret	QAT 14	VAL DNS	22nd	26
2024	MotoGP	Honda	QAT 13	POR 12	AME Ret	SPA 129	FRA Ret	CAT 15	ITA Ret	NED Ret	GER 18	GBR Ret	AUT 17	ARA 14	RSM WD	EMI 11	INA Ret	JPN Ret	AUS Ret	THA 15	MAL Ret	BAR	21st*	21*

* Season still in progress.

References

1. Sports, Dorna. "Joan Mir is the 2020 MotoGP™ World Champion". www.motogp.com.
2. Sports, Dorna. "Joan Mir crowned 2017 Moto3™ World Champion! | MotoGP™". www.motogp.com.
3. "Mir to Moto2™ with EG 0,0 Marc VDS in 2018". MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
4. "Joan Mir 'Rookie of the Year' en Moto2". 18 November 2018.
5. "Mir confirmed at Suzuki in 2019 and 2020". www.motogp.com. 11 July 2018. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
6. Duncan, Lewis (20 August 2019). "Guintoli replaces Mir for Silverstone MotoGP race". www.motorsport.com. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
7. "Suzuki confirms the renewal of Joan Mir for 2021 and 2022". MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 2 April 2020. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
8. Khorounzhiy, Valentin (18 October 2020). "Rins beats Marquez in Aragon thriller, Mir takes points lead". The Race. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
9. Greatest recovery a crash ever by Joan Mir! | 2020 #FrenchGP, retrieved 24 February 2022
10. McLaren, Peter (26 October 2020). "2020 Teruel MotoGP, MotorLand Aragon - Race Results". Crash.net. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
11. McLaren, Peter (8 November 2020). "European MotoGP, Valencia Ricardo Tormo - Race Results". Crash.net. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
12. Lewis, Lisa (8 November 2020). "MotoGP Europe: Mir's first victory puts title rivals on the ropes". Crash.net. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
13. Duncan, Lewis (15 November 2020). "MotoGP champion Mir: "I don't believe what is happening"". Autosport.com. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
14. Duncan, Lewis (29 March 2021). "MotoGP champion Mir denied Qatar podium by "ambition"". Motorsport.com. Motorsport. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
15. "Joan Mir accuses Jack Miller of intentional collision on Doha GP straight". ESPN. 4 April 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
16. Duncan, Lewis (30 August 2022). "Honda signs 2020 MotoGP champion Joan Mir for 2023". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 1 November 2022.

External links

• Joan Mir at MotoGP.com
• Joan Mir at AS.com (in Spanish)