Joan Mir will try to defend the MotoGP title, the first one to beat will be Alex Rins. He’s waiting for Marquez’s return to silence the detractors.
Joan Mir continues his winter preparation for the first MotoGP test in Losail. It will be a narrow-ranks start of the season, where everyone, including rookies, will test on the Arab circuit. Then, two race weekends to arrive to with a mass of data and a set-up in top conditions. For the reigning champion, it will not be a downhill start, at least in theory. “I’m training quite well with my training partner Tito (Rabat) who helps me and motivates me every day to improve. And it works for him too”,
With or without Marc Marquez, the competition will be fierce. Yamaha took seven wins in 2020, against Suzuki’s two. Ducati assures that it has solved the grip problems with the new carcass. KTM will want to reconfirm the great progress. But the first opponent to beat will be box mate Alex Rins. An extreme rivalry is expected in the Hamamatsu box. “It is part of the game, the first one you want to beat is your teammate, we all know that. Àlex wants to try to beat me this year, he could have done it last year too”.
This year there won’t be Davide Brivio, but his absence should not change the internal balance. “I want to think, and I think it won’t change much – says Mir to ‘Mundo Deportivo’ -. Davide has done a great job all these years and he left a very complete team to Suzuki. Sahara-San will do a great job”. For his part, Joan Mir will have to improve his performance on the single lap, to get a better place on the starting grid. The goal is to secure the MotoGP title. The reputation of a World Cup won without Marc Marquez weighs heavily on Mir. “I don’t care what people say, I do my job and I give 100%. To silence the haters, I hope he will come back soon…“.
THE SAME ARTICLE, IN ITALIAN, ON CORSEDIMOTO.COM