Alberto Puig has no doubts: in 2024 Joan Mir will (finally) be able to demonstrate his potential as a rider, now at the helm of the Honda RC213V. For Puig, the team has improved enough to allow the 2020 champion to excel again.
Unlike Luca Marini, who is new to the team, Honda already knows Mir more deeply, not least because of his track record in previous years, and now, with some crucial improvements, the Japanese team’s Team Manager believes there will be changes that will allow him to “unlock” his talent:
– We don’t have to discover Joan, he’s a two-time world champion. He had a lot of difficulties because he probably wasn’t matching the bike and now we’ve improved in some areas that are important to him, in the connection between the engine and the rider, which is better for him, we have more power and he’ll be able to show his real potential. We don’t have any question marks over him, we just have to sort these things out and see how things turn out.
Mir, it should be remembered, finished 2023 – his first with Honda – in 22nd place with 26 points. Marc Márquez, his teammate at the time, was 14th and the manufacturer’s best with 96.