Joan Mir claims Honda vibration “destroys all the options you have”

Joan Mir was once again blighted by rear vibration issues in the Solidarity Barcelona MotoGP, as the famous, 30-year-old Repsol-Honda partnership ended without points.

Mir started 13th having narrowly missed out on a Q2 spot in Saturday morning’s Q1, but the vibration issues that have plagued the Spanish rider in recent races returned once more in the race.

“Happened something very similar as in the previous GPs,” Mir said.

“The difference is that here, for some reason, we have been able to be more competitive, but the problems that we are having in fast corners in terms of vibrations, it destroys all the options that you can have to follow the front group.

“That’s the reality. The bike vibrates in a way that you cannot believe, the bike jumps. It’s something that they [Honda engineers] have to understand. They don’t know why.

“So, now the priority is to solve this, because it’s the thing that’s stopping me from being faster — that’s a bit the reality. The Japanese are working on it, but still a long way.”

Mir ultimately crashed out of the Solidarity Grand Prix, but he said this was down to pushing too hard in braking.

“The crash was because I tried to do more on the brakes, that’s what I have to do, this is the reality,” he said.

“It shows that I don’t give up, I want to be with those guys. I tried to follow the front group, I made a good start, I catch some nice positions and I fought back from 13th position.

“But the reality is that the problems in the fast corners — I lose two tenths in every fast corner because I can’t turn, it’s huge. So, I crash because I tried to [compensate for] this.”

“Difficult” for Honda to do better in Barcelona

In comparison to Mir, Luca Marini was more upbeat, and simply acknowledged that the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya’s characteristics do not suit the RC213V in its current form.

“I think in Barcelona it’s difficult to make better than this for us,” Marini said after closing his first season with HRC with a 16th in Barcelona.

“It’s a very tough circuit. For sure, if we were able to race in a different track maybe it could be a better position.”

Honda had at least been able to see an improvement in performance in Barcelona compared to May’s Catalan Grand Prix at the same venue.

“But we have to check the performance, the development of the bike compared to May here, and I think we made a good step forward,” Marini said.

“For sure it’s still not enough, but the bike is working well, the riders are improved, and we are in a very good trend.

“We have to keep working like this and gain another half-a-second, and from here to Sepang I would say.”