until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Joan Mir says he is weighing up withdrawing from the Aragon MotoGP weekend as he continues to be affected by pain and discomfort from the injuries he sustained in his opening-lap highside at the Red Bull Ring three weeks ago.
That fall left the 2020 MotoGP world champion with a fractured bone and damaged ligaments and tendons, which meant he was not fit enough to race for Suzuki at Misano two weeks ago.
Mir’s rest ahead of the Aragon weekend was enough for him to commit to a return at his home race, which marks the start of a hectic six-week period for MotoGP as the series heads to Japan, Thailand, Australia and Malaysia directly from Spain.
However, that ambition seems to be further away than it was before the start of the weekend, with Mir admitting after the opening day of practice that Friday’s action had taken a big toll on him and that withdrawing from the remainder of the weekend wasn’t yet out of the question.
“I’m not as how I expected,” he told The Race afterwards. “Well, it’s difficult, because we worked pretty hard to try and be here in the best condition, and I expected to feel a lot better.
“The thing is that I’m not feeling great at the moment, and we have to see tomorrow how I wake up after therapy today, some physio and rehab.
“Tomorrow we will decide what we will do, because if I’m not at 100% then it doesn’t make a lot of sense to finish the weekend when then we have another one.”
Mir was only 21st in FP2, well over a second behind pacesetter Jorge Martin.
His problem right now is not pain on the bike that’s causing him the biggest issue, but rather it’s the fact that the discomfort he’s feeling due to his injuries is forcing him into an unnatural riding style.
“I have a problem to use the rear brake, and this is a big issue,” he said.
“Also in the right corners to turn the bike, I put the foot in a different position than normal, and this is generating a different riding style that’s not really making it work. And I’m tired.
“If you are not able to stop well, then you can’t turn well and you don’t have grip. I tried, but I naturally felt a lot better with a used tyre – I made the same time with a 10-lap used medium rear as with the soft.
“The truth is that when I want to push, I cannot, because I can’t stop the bike. Everything with a new tyre is more stiff, more physical, and that’s where I have the most trouble. Tonight we will analyse everything and then decide.”
Mir insisted though that he was committed to riding the bike as long as he is fit and able, even given the situation he finds himself in.
Seeing out the season with Suzuki before its departure from MotoGP but signed up to partner Marc Marquez on a factory Honda next year, there is an argument to be made for Mir resting up and returning fully fit, something he said he’s considering – albeit for a different reason.
“It’s not for the situation, it’s for how everything is going,” he explained. “If I’m fighting for a title, it would make a lot of sense to try and score even one point even if you’re not at 100%.
“But this year it looks like that isn’t our case. We have to be smart and try to get good results; this is our goal, to be on the podium. But after the feelings of today, I have doubts.”
Those doubts will be clarified one way or another, though, with Mir planning on making a decision only after a night’s rest and once he sees how he feels once he returns to the bike again on Saturday morning.
“I’ll wake up tomorrow with the mentality that I want to race,” he added, “but we have to be smart. As a team, we will decide. During FP3, or after it.”
Should he decide not to continue with the weekend, it is not yet known if Suzuki will be in a position to replace him despite having tested a potential candidate last week at Misano when MotoE champion Dominique Aegerter was allowed to trial the bike for 30-odd laps in the post-race test.
With Mir originally passed fit to ride at Aragon on Thursday, it’s believed that Aegerter has been stood down by Suzuki – and although it can substitute him in for Mir until just before Saturday’s FP4 session, it is not clear whether it would make that call at such short notice.
