Joan Mir “eager to get going”, Luca Marini “it’s time to take a step” at COTA MotoGP
Joan Mir and Luca Marini already threatening their 2024 MotoGP season points totals as Honda heads to the scene of its most recent victory.
After just two rounds of the 2025 MotoGP season, Joan Mir has accumulated almost half of the meagre 21 points he managed across the entire 2024 campaign.
Nine of his current ten points came last time at Termas, where the HRC Castrol rider finished eighth in the Sprint and ninth in the GP for his first weekend top ten double as an RCV rider.
Such positions are not going to excite either Mir or Honda, given their title-winning past, but the clear progress is a cause of motivation.
"Last year I was coming to the races knowing that we would probably struggle and this year is different," Mir said.
Honda’s step in form was underlined by LCR’s Johann Zarco, who qualified on the front row in Argentina and took Honda’s best MotoGP results of the post-Marc Marquez era with fourth in the Sprint and sixth in the GP.
That has propelled Honda to an early second in the constructors’ standings, behind Ducati.
While Mir is confident Honda can aim for best of the rest, the number of Ducati riders makes life difficult.
"The reality is that we have six super competitive bikes [the Ducatis], that are one or two steps in front of everyone," he said. "So there are those guys and then us. That always makes our life a little bit more difficult."
Meanwhile, this weekend marks the two-year anniversary of Honda’s most recent MotoGP win, by Alex Rins at COTA in 2023.
Mir, whose best result in Austin remains a fourth place for Suzuki in 2022, is cautiously optimistic about his chances.
“A quick time between races but I am eager to get going again and keep building our potential,” Mir said.
“Austin is a really unique circuit, completely different from almost anywhere else we ride.
“Of course, we are approaching with optimism after what we have to say is a quite good start to the year, but we need to see how our bike goes there, what the track is like, many things.
“It’s a track all about flowing, putting everything together in one lap because a small mistake can be difficult to recover from with the layout of the circuit.”
Luca Marini: “It’s time to take a step”
Mir starts the weekend tied with team-mate Luca Marini for eleventh in the championship, six places behind Zarco.
The Italian needs just four more points to match the 14 points he scored in the entire 2024 campaign.
Marini’s focus is improving qualifying performance, after showing strong race pace in Argentina.
“I am looking for more in Austin, we have been happy with how the first two races have gone but now it’s time to take a step,” he said.
“If we can have a better performance when qualifying, we can be much closer to everyone.
“In Argentina I was happy with my pace in the race and able to close a lot of distance to the leaders, but like this you arrive at a point where you can’t do more when you are catching up and using the tyre.
“Starting higher will help us to be more competitive. COTA is a track I like a lot, so I want to make the most of this weekend.”
Marini finished second as a VR46 Ducati rider, behind Rins, in the 2023 Austin round.
Zarco, Honda's top rider with 55 points last year, has claimed 25 points after two rounds this season.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
