“Are you looking to get Joan Mir out of Honda?” Another rider eyes exit?

Mir has endured a horrible 2023 since swapping Suzuki for Repsol Honda, only completing one out of eight grands prix so far.

He is contracted until the end of 2024 as Marc Marquez’s teammate but, such is the state of Honda’s problems, his manager has been asked if he could exit early.

Paco Sanchez was asked if he is trying to get Mir out of Honda, but replied to AS: “No. The goal is to fulfil the contract with Honda and try to make that bike competitive. 

“It is not an easy mission. Great riders have passed through Honda these years, such as Jorge Lorenzo, Pol Espargaro, Alex Márquez and Dani Pedrosa in their last years, all of them having a hard time. 

“Even Marc Marquez had a hard time, because he won with a brutal number of falls.”

Sanchez was forced to defend his professional relationship with Mir, denying that they are set to part ways.

“I can not say anything else. I don't know who has an interest in leaking fake news,” he hit back. 

“My relationship with Joan is perfect and I don't know what will happen in the future, because it's not written, but I can say that today it's a great relationship, not only on a professional level but also on a personal level. 

“I appreciate Joan and love him very much, almost like a son, and we have an extraordinary relationship.”

Does Mir feel similarly?

“I understand yes, because he has shown it to me and continues to show it to me day by day,” Sanchez said. 

“In the future we will see how it goes, but today the relationship is perfect. 

“These are all made up hoaxes.”

Three of Honda’s four riders sat out the Dutch MotoGP with injuries, a scathing indictment on the machinery at their disposal.

2020 MotoGP champion Mir suffered with a hand injury but the summer break should enable him to recover.

“He is recovering from the injury and I think that for Silverstone he will be 100 per cent,” Sanchez said.

Mir’s arrival at Honda alongside Marquez was quite a coup - a duo of ex-world champions who, on paper, looked a formidable unit.

Mir’s nightmare start to Honda life is only mirrored by his esteemed teammate’s even worse season so far.

“Mentally he cannot be happy, because things are not going as expected,” Sanchez said about Mir. 

“We don't really know why and it's difficult to find the reason why the bike doesn't quite work as he wanted for his riding style, but that's the reality. 

“At the moment he cannot ride and show his talent and speed with that bike.”

Marquez’s five falls at the German MotoGP, before he withdrew from the grand prix, came on the same bike that the absent Mir rides.

“It was not good news to see Marc falling so many times,” Sanchez said. 

“That is not good news for anyone, neither for Honda nor for him. 

“What Mir wants is for this project to go ahead, for the bike to work, for him to be able to demonstrate his talent and give Honda back the confidence he was given when he signed him. 

“Marc's falls cannot give him joy or make him right. 

“What we are looking for is something else, it is that all the Honda riders work well, that they find their position and the set-up that allows them to fight for the front positions, which is what they signed for, not to fight for 18th.

“I wouldn't say it's a treacherous bike. It is a critical motorcycle and it has been so for several years, but it has come together in a year in which Ducati has taken a giant leap forward, with solutions that others have not found. 

“Their bikes are dominating the championship, even turning it into a Ducati Cup. Right now, the bike is way above the rider. 

“In the rider-bike pairing, before it was 70-30 and now it is 40-60 or 30-70.”