Mir: Job with Suzuki not finished

Joan Mir will spend at least four seasons as a Suzuki MotoGP rider, with a recent two-year contract extension keeping him alongside Alex Rins until the end of 2022.

Suzuki first won Mir's signature after a bidding frenzy in early 2018, when - despite having barely started his Moto2 career - the reigning Moto3 champion received MotoGP offers from three different manufacturers.

Mir: Job with Suzuki not finished

Joan Mir will spend at least four seasons as a Suzuki MotoGP rider, with a recent two-year contract extension keeping him alongside Alex Rins until the end of 2022.

Suzuki first won Mir's signature after a bidding frenzy in early 2018, when - despite having barely started his Moto2 career - the reigning Moto3 champion received MotoGP offers from three different manufacturers.

Part of the reasoning behind moving Mir swiftly into MotoGP was the two-year cycle of MotoGP contracts, his manager Paco Sanchez explaining if that if Mir didn't move for 2019 then he'd have to wait until 2021.

Such lost time was also a key reason behind Mir extending his stay on a GSX-RR for a further two seasons.

The Spaniard said that if he switched to another manufacturer, he would have to start the learning process all over again. Despite being just 22, Mir said it is "time I do not have".

"I'm happy to stay with Suzuki. It's the choice that I wanted to take for a lot of reasons, but the first and most important is that in these two years you cannot finish the work," said Mir

"We went up from Moto2 to MotoGP after only one year, so in the end last year was to make experience and the second year is always to start to get good results. And it's not a lot, only one year to show your full potential. I think that we need much more and that's why I signed with Suzuki."

Mir claimed a best race result of fifth during an injury-interrupted debut MotoGP season, finishing twelfth overall in the world championship, as the second-best rookie behind Fabio Quartararo

"I know from my manager that we also had other offers [for 2021-2022], that's true, but I didn't speak with other manufacturers. At the end my idea was to stay with Suzuki. Like I said, the job with Suzuki is not finished," Mir said.

"Only two years is not a lot of time, because one year to learn and another to push. Then if you move to another manufacturer, you have to spend another year to understand [a new bike] again and then the second year to be more in front.

"This is time I do not have. I want to stay here with Suzuki, to be competitive and try to win races as soon as possible."

Rins has proven Suzuki victories are a realistic goal, claiming wins at both Austin and Silverstone last season on his way to fourth in the world championship.

Mir has been a much closer match for his team-mate in winter testing, when the latest GSX-RR appeared to enjoy the new Michelin rear tyre and has been tipped as one of the best all-round packages on the grid.

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