– With 22 crashes last year and 16 so far this season, Joan Mir is the Honda rider with the most crashes. The Mallorcan attributes this to his willingness to take risks in order to find the performance of the RC213V.
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Marc Marquez left Honda at the end of 2023, partly because he regularly crashed when trying to be fast on the motorcycle. That year, there were a total of 29 crashes and he also had to miss races.
At that time, Mir was in his first season with the Honda factory team and had 24 crashes throughout the season. That was exactly as many as he had in three years combined at Suzuki before.
This pattern has continued throughout the Spaniard’s time with Honda. Mir recorded a total of 79 crashes in the 69 Grands Prix he has contested with Honda so far, averaging more than one per race weekend.
Similar numbers are shown by Johann Zarco, who has crashed 48 times in the 49 Grands Prix he has contested since 2024 with the RC213V from the LCR team. In the 2025 season alone, he recorded 28 crashes.
Recently, Mir was asked at the Aragon race weekend to put this crash statistic into perspective. Most of his crashes occurred in races, some even in the first lap.
“There is no specific explanation because every crash has a different reason,” said Mir. “For example, in Silverstone I had contact at the start and crashed. What is clear: if you start from the first or second row, you don’t crash.”
“Racing at the front is very different from how you race in the back of the field. You have to try to start further forward. It is clear that we had such crashes.”
But Mir also says: “There were also crashes because I took more risks than necessary and tried to push more than was possible. And those are exactly the ones I have to get better under control as a rider.”
So far this season, Mir is the rider with the most crashes in the field with 16, tied with Jorge Martín. But the Aprilia rider leads the world championship thanks to his consistently good race results.
“Many crashes happen because,” says Mir, “you try to get more out of the motorcycle than is actually possible. I am an experienced rider, but now I am also a rider who has to take every chance to achieve a good result.”
“I don’t know when the next opportunity will come. If you don’t consistently score results, it can have two interpretations: Either it increases your hunger to do well, or it switches you off completely.”
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“In my case, there was a moment in my career when I wasn’t sure if it was worth continuing. Now, however, I try when I have the opportunity because I want to and I am hungry to achieve more.”
“I probably should rein in this impulse because I don’t have the motorcycle to achieve more,” says Mir, who was able to win the world championship with Suzuki in 2020 with a consistent season.
Luca Marini, on the other hand, hardly crashes
What stands out most about Mir’s crashes is the contrast to his teammate Luca Marini, who shows exactly the opposite. The Italian has crashed only 14 times in the 52 Grands Prix he has contested with Honda so far.
Only three of these crashes happened in Grands Prix: two in his first season and only once in 2025 (Japan). In the current season, Marini finished all 13 Grands Prix so far in the points and is therefore eleventh in the world championship, while Mir is only 18th.
Ultimately, it is not known whether Honda values the search for performance, taking risks and thus often crashing, or an approach with less risk that leads to fewer crashes.
“I think it is appreciated,” Mir believes about his risk-taking approach. “In a competitive project, speed is especially rewarded, the attempt to go to the limit and achieve the best possible result.”
“Other projects may prefer development and finishing races. These are different ways to ride a motorcycle. I also know how to ride the other way, without crashing,” the Mallorcan continues.
“Certainly: If you have the speed, it is very easy to ride slower. But if you don’t have it, it is difficult to ride faster. For me, the important thing is not to get used to riding slower, but to push.”
“To become an ever better rider. To never be satisfied. That is the perspective I had at Honda, especially now. This is a mentally very complicated situation for a rider who has already won.”
“Because that is exactly the point,” Mir addresses his critical point. “When you have won and know that you can race at the front, you ask yourself why you are not there. You want to take more risks, but those are my demons.”
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2026 is Mir’s fourth and final season with the Honda factory team. In the next two years, he will race for the Ducati satellite team Gresini.
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