Many retirements, but two podium finishes – Joan Mir looks back on a mixed MotoGP season in 2025 – He criticizes the lack of consistency
The 2025 MotoGP season, Joan Mir’s third as a Honda factory rider, can best be described as “all or nothing.” The 2020 MotoGP world champion often crashed while in a promising position. Sometimes it was his own fault, but often it wasn’t.
He crashed a total of 22 times. However, this only put him in fifth place in the crash statistics. Mir only finished nine of the 22 Grands Prix. Six of those were in the top 10. The highlights were third places in Motegi and Sepang.
“This season was very tough mentally,” the Spaniard looks back, “but it was also a season in which I learned a lot because I tried to cope with the frustration as best I could. I think that makes me mentally very strong for the future.”
“These are the seasons from which you learn for the future how to deal with such situations. Hopefully, everything will fall into place this season, and next season we’ll be able to have a consistent season.“
”Because this last part of the season was very good in terms of performance, but we lacked consistency.” For Honda, results in the top 6 became increasingly achievable on their own. Qualifying for Q2 also became more regular.
Mir finished the season in 15th place in the World Championship, behind his teammates Johann Zarco and Luca Marini, but in terms of performance, Mir was often the fastest Honda rider in the fall.
Overall, the field moved closer together in the fall. Marc Marquez’s injury-related absence also played a role in this. The races were more open, with different winners. Mir’s podium finishes sparked euphoria at Honda. “Yes, I think that’s a very good thing. Because today we see different manufacturers fighting for podium places, and that’s good,” says the 28-year-old. “Anything that is unpredictable is not boring and gives the strongest rider a chance on a race weekend.”
“At the same time, the overall level is extremely high. It can happen that you win one race and then, due to a lack of feeling, you don’t even make the top 10 in the next race. That’s something that makes it very difficult to maintain consistency throughout the season.”
“It is precisely this consistency that will play a very big role in terms of the title contenders in the coming season.” Honda wants to consolidate its progress in the final year of the 1,000cc era and make regular appearances on the podium.
Overall, however, Ducati has been in the best position so far. “The reality is that they always have someone on the podium, they always have someone who is fast,” says Mir about the benchmark in the MotoGP field. “That’s the reality.”
“That means they always have someone who can make the difference. It’s more about the lack of consistency I mentioned earlier, which is a little lacking. But the reality is also that it’s very difficult to achieve that consistency at the moment.”
In addition to his new Grand Prix results, Mir collected World Championship points in seven sprints. He finished with a total of 96 points. That’s a significant increase compared to 2023, when he scored only 26 points, and last year, when he scored only 21.
