- Honda’s Joan Mir told reporters at Sepang on Thursday that vision problems and extreme fatigue kept him out of four MotoGP rounds, per Motorsport.com.
- The 2020 world champion stressed that he was describing symptoms and that his comments were not a diagnosis, and he said a vision problem from his past worsened when it combined with stress.
- Asked whether the condition had been affecting him earlier this season without his knowledge, Mir said “completely” and added that he now has answers.
After Almost Seven Weeks Without Answers, Mir Explains the Symptoms That Stopped Him
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, completely.” That was Joan Mir’s reply at Sepang on Thursday when he was quizzed on whether an undisclosed medical problem had been working against him earlier this season without his knowledge. “Now I have a lot of answers,” the 2020 world champion said.
It was the first real explanation from a rider who retired from the San Marino Grand Prix on 13 September and has not raced again. The cause of his absence from the Austrian, Japanese, Indonesian and Australian rounds was never disclosed. On Thursday, in his Spanish-language briefing, Mir named the symptoms. “The most worrying things were the vision problems, and also the extreme fatigue, which I couldn’t control,” he said.
He returns to his Honda this weekend at the Malaysian Grand Prix, Round 19 of the season. MotoGP’s first session at Sepang starts on Friday at 10:45 local time, and Mir has said he will learn how he feels once he is back on the bike.
A Past Vision Problem, Stress and a Weekend at Misano
The build up was slow. Mir explained that his medical issues gradually mounted in the weeks leading up to the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano. “Before Misano, I’d already been experiencing this for a while, but it was there that I started to lose control of it,” he said.
He also gave his own view of where it began. “The cause was linked to a vision problem I’d had in the past, which, combined with stress, got worse,” Mir said. He kept to the limits of that account: he told the briefing he was speaking only about his symptoms, and that his comments were not any kind of diagnosis.
The recovery started with a treatment from Dr Angel Charte, MotoGP’s medical director. “It looks like day by day I was not able to recover until we did a treatment with Dr. Charte and I could see immediately that I was improving,” he said. He also pointed to “a lot of work at home.” Of the weeks of uncertainty, he said he had carried plenty of question marks about what would happen, and added, “I’m so happy to be back.”
The Weekend It Slipped Away
The warning signs were public at Misano, though nobody knew the cause. On the Saturday Mir finished 20th in the sprint, and afterwards he told reporters, “I don’t feel 100%, not even 50%.” He was also suffering from headaches and a severe lack of energy that he could not explain.
On Sunday he started the grand prix and retired at the end of the fifth lap, then travelled to Barcelona for more extensive tests. He had no further contact with the media. Three days later Honda announced that those tests had found altered parameters in his blood. The blood results sidelined him from the Austrian Grand Prix, and he faced more examinations to find the exact cause. Takaaki Nakagami, Honda’s test and development rider, took his bike at the Red Bull Ring, and the plan was to have Mir back for Japan.
The plan changed on 22 September. In a team statement, Dr Charte said that “for the time being, the test results are inconclusive and absolute rest and rehabilitation therapy have been prescribed for the next 15 days.” That period ended on 6 October. The same statement spelled out how long the problem had been building: “Joan Mir has been experiencing various symptoms affecting his energy and performance for several months, which have recently worsened; at present, the exact cause is unknown.” Mir was undergoing a series of tests at Dexeus University Hospital in search of a definitive diagnosis, and he was now out of Motegi and Mandalika as well.
Honda Without a Bike at Phillip Island and a Manager’s Rebuke
Mir could not put a date on his own return. He told reporters on Thursday that the layoff was unlike a physical injury. “It was not like when you break a bone and you know, more or less, the time to recover,” he said. “It was more about time, patience and being 100% sure to go back.”
Honda used Nakagami in Austria, and Aleix Espargaró, its test rider, replaced him in Indonesia before withdrawing from that race. On 21 October the team said Mir and his medical team were working intensively on his return and that Phillip Island came too soon. Honda planned to race with Luca Marini alone, and then a virus ruled Marini out after the first practice session. No Honda HRC bike ran on track at Phillip Island after FP1.
Marini described that illness on Thursday at Sepang. “It was as if I had arthritis,” he told reporters. “I was even struggling to type messages on my phone.” Honda should be back to full strength this weekend, with Mir cleared and Marini feeling better.
Mir’s team gave no details of the layoff, and his manager objected to how it was being described. On 28 October Paco Sanchez posted on social media in response to stories on Mir’s return that called the illness mysterious. “Diseases are not mysterious,” Sanchez wrote. He said every patient has the right to receive dignified and respectful care, and above all “to protect their privacy and confidentiality.” Mir posted photos and videos of himself training on dirt bikes ahead of the Malaysian GP, and Honda team manager Alberto Puig had assured everyone the team expected him at Sepang. On Tuesday Honda made the return official. “It hasn’t been an easy period,” Mir said in the statement, which added that “the doctors have given me the green light to return.”
A Crash-Strewn Season Gets a Second Reading
Mir was not asked directly on Thursday about his crashes, but the question of the illness and his season came up anyway. In an interview published on 8 September, five days before the San Marino race, he and Jorge Martin shared the most falls of any rider this season, 16 each, and Mir had 22 crashes the year before. He had a view of why: “Many crashes come from trying to find more from the bike than there really is.”
That interview also showed a rider working through his future. Mir had spoken of doubts about his future, and he said there was a moment in his career when he “wasn’t sure whether it was worth continuing.” Now, he said, he was hungry to achieve more. On the urge to keep taking risks once you know you can be at the front, he said, “But these are my demons.”
Thursday’s answers add a second reading. He did not tie any specific fall to the illness. What he said, to the question of whether it had been affecting him this season, was “completely.” Asked whether missing four races had been easier given how Honda had struggled, he said “Japan was painful” and described a track he enjoys, on which the bike was normally quite good. He chuckled and trailed off when the other races came up. Then came a more serious reply. Racing while unfit would be unwise, the 29-year-old Mallorcan reckoned. He said “you always want to be part of the game,” but if you do not feel well, “it’s bad for you,” and “you are not ready.”
Sepang, Where He Last Stood on a Podium
Mir called Sepang a familiar track and the right place to return. It is also the site of his most recent podium: he finished third there last year. “Sepang is a circuit which holds some good memories for me and for us as Honda,” he said in the team announcement.
He is not setting targets. “The most important thing this weekend is to get back on the bike, reconnect with the team and check how I feel,” he said. On Thursday he put it more simply: “I still have some question marks, but I feel good.” And on what comes next, “tomorrow we will see how I feel.”
The schedule gives him an early test. MotoGP Practice starts at 15:00 local time on Friday, the Saturday sprint is at 15:00, and the Malaysian Grand Prix over 20 laps starts at 15:00 on Sunday.
For Mir, the weekend opens a short final stretch with Honda. He leaves the factory team after this season to race a Ducati with the independent Gresini team, the same route Marc and Alex Marquez took. Honda gets him for the closing races of 2026 and Gresini gets him in 2027, with the symptoms named and, by his own count, some question marks left. The first step comes on Friday morning at Sepang.
