The transfer market for the 2023 season and beyond has entered its home stretch and there remains a major issue to resolve since it concerns a World Champion by the name of Joan Mir. His integration into the Repsol Honda team has been promised for ages by rumor but while the summer break has started, no contract has yet been signed. Meanwhile, Alex Rins, his current teammate at Suzuki, assures that he will be at LCR Honda next year. It is as if the formalization of the scheme had been delayed on the side of the title holder in 2020 in the category. A tension that is palpable when the subject is submitted to his manager Paco Sanchez…
We will remember that Paco Sanchez is the one who irritated Pete Beirer from home KTM when talking about the salary conditions of a Remy gardner which he also takes care of. A sensitive topic but as a manager, the person concerned is doing his job. Moreover, he persists and signs in his assessment of the market situation by declaring on the YouTube channel TR MotoGP : “ budgets have been cut, and it's true especially among European brands. That means that there are few factory motorcycles that pay pre-Covid wages. There are few attractive places left for drivers, both from a sporting and economic point of view. Pilot salaries have been falling for years, except for Marc Marquez, Fabio Quartararo and Joan Mir, which remained the same. We are reaching alarming levels ».
On occasion, he gives elements which reveal a particular atmosphere in Suzuki : " the bike is not going, the technicians are looking for their future even if they say that they all go together... They are not 100%, they don't have this team spirit. Brivio knew how to manage wishes and egos very well, making this team a big family. It's been lost and it's no longer a family ". A logical consequence of an announced closure of the team at the end of the year and a blow to the efforts made by Livio Suppo, Racing Consultant, the team manager who will close the store, to keep the blue ship still afloat...
« The future of Joan Mir may also depend on Franco Morbidelli«
But back to a Joan mir for the moment without a sure and certain future. The pilot has already said that this precariousness weighs on him. When Paco Sanchez launches into this subject, he takes a martial tone suggesting tension with the plenipotentiaries Honda... " Joan is not afraid of anything, if she were, he would stay at home. He knows the difficulties and at the moment Repsol Honda is the only team we have. If he doesn't race at Honda, Joan goes home, there is no plan B », assured his manager. It almost seems like an ultimatum, which responds to a Alberto puig who told Assen again that Repsol Honda had several candidates to consider for 2023.
« Nothing about the World Championship scares Joan », insists again Paco Sanchez. " He has the mentality of a champion ". That being said, the fact that Joan mir could find itself without prospects if Repsol Honda defaults is not exactly the truth. Because there is another option. But for it to reveal itself, it would take a resignation...
Reference is made here to this rumor reporting a possible withdrawal of Franco Morbidelli, which would leave a free handlebar in the official team Yamaha ... " Lin Jarvis assured me that Franco would continue regardless of his performance » comments the manager. However… " Another thing is that Morbidelli goes away on his own. So if we're home I imagine Jarvis will call me " finished Paco Sanchez. So, Joan mir teammate of Fabio Quartararo ? Yamaha would only have two M1s in the running next year with a hell of a pair of World Champions in the box…
