Joan Mir ended a challenging period of nearly four years without podium success by securing his first top-three finish riding for Honda at the Motegi circuit. His achievement marks a significant comeback after 1,422 days since his last podium, which came at Portimao in November 2021 when he competed for Suzuki.
During this extended gap, Mir faced multiple difficulties including injuries, an uncompetitive motorcycle, and bad luck, which combined to force him to retire from 29 races since last season began. This 67-race stretch without a podium is the longest recorded by a former MotoGP world champion in the four-stroke era, second only to Nicky Hayden, who spent his final two seasons competing on a less competitive CRT/Open class bike.
Mir Reflects on Difficulties During Transition to Honda
Mir openly acknowledged the challenges encountered after moving to Honda, a period he describes as “super-difficult” yet one in which he never gave up hope. He emphasized the difficulty of enduring such a long wait for positive results but expressed deep satisfaction in finally returning to the podium.
“From the day that we decided to move to Honda in a difficult period, we already knew that a long time without good results could happen, but I could not imagine that amount of time,”
Joan Mir, MotoGP Rider
“The reality is that it has been a super-difficult period. I just never gave up, trying to see the positives from the things that were happening to us; now you can imagine how nice the taste of this podium is.”
Joan Mir, MotoGP Rider
Context of Longest Podium Droughts Following Championship Victories
Mir’s extended absence from the podium is notable when compared with other former champions’ droughts after winning a MotoGP title. Nicky Hayden tops this list with 82 consecutive races without a podium from 2011 to 2016 before retiring. Mir follows with 67 races from 2021 to 2025. Other notable gaps include Fabio Quartararo at 29 races, Valentino Rossi at 28 before retiring, Jorge Lorenzo at 19, and Marc Marquez at 10.
Mir’s Rapid Rise and Challenges After Early Success
Before this prolonged struggle, Joan Mir had a quick ascent through the Moto3 and Moto2 classes, reaching MotoGP in just three seasons — an achievement matched only by Pedro Acosta. Early in his MotoGP career, Mir displayed significant potential; after 20 races with Suzuki, he earned his first podium and ended that year as world champion.
Mir secured six podium finishes the following year and ranked third overall in the standings. However, his momentum slowed due to injuries and difficulties during his final year with Suzuki in 2022. The switch to Repsol Honda in 2023 as teammate to Marc Marquez did not yield the expected results. Marquez himself departed Honda for Gresini Ducati in 2024, while Mir endured his career-low points tally, failing to place in any top ten grand prix finishes that year.
Honda’s Project Improvement and Mir’s Renewed Competitiveness
The 2025 season has seen Honda begin to address prior shortcomings through a project overhaul, yielding encouraging results. Although Johann Zarco of the LCR team has earned victories and podiums, and Mir’s teammate Luca Marini has made notable progress, Mir’s campaign was marred by multiple retirements until the Motegi race.
At the Japanese venue, Mir showed strong performance from the outset, placing fourth in Friday practice and qualifying impressively by splitting factory Ducati riders on the front row. In the Sprint race, he battled Marc Marquez close to finishing fourth. During the Grand Prix, Mir maintained early fourth position before overtaking Pedro Acosta mid-race to claim a spot on the podium. He finished safely ahead of Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi by three seconds.
“I just enjoyed every lap of this race, fighting with these guys after a long time not doing it,”
Joan Mir, MotoGP Rider
“Super-happy for the team, they deserved a lot, also here in Japan. I cannot think of a better place to do our comeback and just super-happy for Honda, thank you to them – they deserve it.”
Joan Mir, MotoGP Rider
Mir Addresses Public Perception and His Racing Identity
Joan Mir also reflected on how the volatile nature of motorsport and social media exposure often overshadows an athlete’s prior accomplishments, focusing solely on recent performances. Despite this, Mir remains aware of his achievements and believes that informed fans and insiders understand his career context and value his resilience.
“In sport in general, you are what you make in your last race,”
Joan Mir, MotoGP Rider
“Not just me, I think everyone has the same problem. At the end, it’s very easy to hide behind the phone and to speak about shit that doesn’t give any benefit to anyone.”
“But, at the end, I know what I achieved. I think the people that know a little bit about this world and about sport in general value everything.”
“I’m not super-good today and yesterday I was a disaster. It’s not like that.”
Joan Mir, MotoGP Rider
Mir Confident in Potential Beyond Podium Finish
Mir indicated that the potential he showed at Motegi was consistent with other recent performances where he demonstrated top-five speed, although a result had previously eluded him. He mentioned weekends such as Misano and Brno where strong pace was evident but could not be converted into strong finishes due to various factors.
“The potential that I had in this grand prix is not something that surprised me. The podium, yes. But the potential itself not so much, because even in Misano I had good potential on Friday,”
Joan Mir, MotoGP Rider
“Also in Brno I started quite in front. The thing is that we could not put a result together.”
“My goal at the beginning of the weekend was to try to put a weekend together.”
“It was not a podium that I was thinking about, was more a top five, but I had the opportunity to fight for something bigger and I did it.”
Joan Mir, MotoGP Rider
Season Outlook with Motegi Results Boosting Mir’s Standing
Joan Mir earned 22 points from his Motegi podium, bringing his season total to 72 points and moving him up to 15th position in the MotoGP world championship standings. This result may signal a turning point for Mir’s campaign and increase momentum as the season progresses, especially with Honda’s ongoing improvements to their MotoGP package.
