MotoGP champion of 2020 Joan Mir has been officially announced at Honda’s factory team as team-mate for Marc Marquez for at least the next two years.
Mir has been heavily rumoured to act as current Repsol Honda rider’s Pol Espargaro replacement for 2023 and beyond after being left without a berth following Suzuki’s shock decision earlier this year to quit MotoGP at the end of 2022.
With Espargaro having been confirmed at the newly-rebranded GasGas Tech 3 KTM squad for next year at the Austrian Grand Prix just over a week ago, Honda has made the move to announce Mir as Marquez’s partner for the next two years.
Mir will join current team-mate Alex Rins within the Honda organisation after the three-time premier class race winner signed a deal to replace Alex Marquez at LCR for next year during the recent summer break, Rins receiving identical full-factory RC213-V equipment at the Italian outfit.
The Spaniard is no stranger to success with the Japanese brand, having won the 2017 Moto3 world title in dominant style on a Leopard Racing-run Honda machine before spending a year in Moto2 en-route to a premier class graduation with Suzuki for the ’19 campaign.
A tricky rookie campaign would be followed by unexpected championship glory in the Covid-19 affected ’20 season, Mir scoring a single win at Valencia before wrapping up the title with a round to spare.
Mir’s ’22 season meanwhile has been one that can only be described as tumultuous having failed to score a single rostrum finish so far, while a career-high six DNF’s leaves him a lowly 12th in the riders standings with seven rounds remaining, though he will miss this weekend’s San Marino GP after fracturing his ankle at the Red Bull Ring.
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