By akademiotoelektronik, 02/04/2023

MotoGP Styria J3 Debriefing Joan Mir (Suzuki / 2): "I lost all chance of victory in about two laps", etc. (Entirety)

This Sunday, August 8, 2021, Joan Mir answered questions from journalists from the Red Bull Ring circuit, at the end of the Styrian Grand Prix.

We went to listen (via teleconferencing software) to the words of the Spanish driver, second in the race after leading a good fight against Jorge Martín.

As usual, we report here the words of Joan Mir without any formatting.

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Joan, you were very strong all weekend, but not strong enough to get the win. But you must still be very happy with the way this second part of the season started…

"I'm very happy, it's really an important podium, especially because the team in Japan worked very hard. And in the end being able to fight for the win and get that podium here in Austria is really great for the team. So I'm very happy and very proud of them. In terms of the race, I tried to give the maximum all day here, but the least we can say is that Jorge Martin was stronger than us today.

“At first I was able to stay with him, and I was very comfortable. Subsequently I scared myself several times by going wide under braking, and I lost all chances of victory in about two laps. So I was close to winning today, but it wasn't enough. We have to keep learning and improving the bike, but also my riding and the package as a whole. We will try to be even stronger so that we can fight for victory next weekend.”

Suzuki used the ride height device this weekend and it seems to have worked quite quickly. Are you therefore confident of being able to find those last tenths that you are missing in order to be able to play for victory?

“I cannot say that this device is an advantage over the others. This simply allows you to start under the same conditions as the others. We still have to improve this device, because it is still only the first prototype in this area and there is room for improvement. We will continue to improve the bike with the second version that we will bring to this subject.

“Others have been using this device for a long time, and that’s why we still need more information. But today we have taken a good step at this level. We didn't expect to use it all weekend because in Japan they weren't able to do a lot of testing due to lack of time. In my mind, therefore, I had to cover as many laps as possible to provide the team with as much information as possible. But I'm glad that in the end this device works well. »

What is your opinion of Jorge Martin? On the pilot, but also on its possibilities in the future?

“I think Jorge's talent is very high, we all know that. I'm not sure he'll be faster in the future, but I think he'll be more consistent, because as he said himself: When you fight for pole position, it's because you don't have a lot of time gains left to hope for! On the other hand, I think he will be able to be faster in each race. This is what should happen eventually. In Qatar we saw that he had adapted very well to Ducati and MotoGP from the outset. But the most difficult thing for the future will be to maintain this level of performance.

Last year, during the second race in Austria, we saw quite different results from those observed during the first. Do you think the same thing will happen again next Sunday?

“I think last year we saw several riders at the forefront that we weren’t expecting in the second race. I think that's going to be the case again this time around because the race has a lot of laps, and that tends to put everyone on a level playing field. I think the hierarchy will tighten up indeed. »

How important is this second place for you in the championship?

“It’s always something important to finish on the podium. In the first part of the season, it seemed that we couldn't hope for more than a place on the podium, but this time I was close to victory, and that's the most positive thing. , much more than the final result. Our level of performance has increased, and that is the most important thing.”

We saw three red flags for three races this weekend. Should we conclude that this circuit is too dangerous for MotoGP, and that it is necessary to think about modifying its layout?

“Turn 3 is very critical, it is very dangerous especially in the wet. But what is also dangerous is turn 1, because when you come out of this turn you find yourself on a promontory and then you have a resource, and if something happens there you cannot see it . Last year we saw a big accident there, and today luckily nothing serious happened to Lorenzo Savadori. Ultimately it is true that this circuit is very critical in terms of safety. »

Do you think you could have fought for the win today without the ride height device?

“I don't think so. Here in Austria, it would have been very difficult to achieve the same level of performance without riding with this device. »

At the end of the race, was using the ride height device more natural for you, or did you still have to think about the best way to use it?

“I rode all day Friday to make sure it became automatic in my mind. But what really helped me was to see that with this device I was getting much better acceleration. If you don't earn anything with a device, you forget it, but if it gives you earnings, it's very easy to assimilate it.

Did the ride height device give you any new sensations with the tyres?

“This is something we still need to analyze. This is the first time we have raced with this device. It was therefore important for me to participate in the race with him to accumulate a lot of information. I may have indeed felt more degradation at the end of the race, but I am not sure. We still have to analyze this. »

MotoGP Grand Prix of Styria at the Red Bull Ring: Results

Ranking credit: MotoGP.com