Joan Mir believes his Suzuki Ecstar team has made a significant step forward after an encouraging performance at the first MotoGP pre-season 2022 test at Sepang over the winter.
One of the teams looking to make a notable improvement for 2022 after defending its 2020 MotoGP title resulted in a competitive but winless season last year, Mir asked the Japanese firm to be more aggressive with their GSX-RR upgrades.
With both Mir and teammate Alex Rins comfortably inside the top ten throughout the weekend, despite the temptation to do an afternoon sprint on low fuel and fresh tyres, the Spaniard expressed great satisfaction with the bike’s potential.
“Almost everything [has improved],” he said. “But we have to confirm a lot of things in Mandalika. Today was an important day to understand the potential of the engine.
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“The electronics worked a lot better and I was able to be pretty fast and really consistent in pace.
“This morning we made the wrong choice to do the time attack. We only had 2 tires. We started with the soft ones. I dropped out, but I didn’t do a good lap time.
“I did a lap time with a used rear and a hard front. We’re really close, I think there’s an advantage but we’re not here to attack the time.”
Having suffered from a conservative approach last season following a surprise 2020 title win, Suzuki has paid particular attention to the engine over the winter, with Mir confirming gains in straight line performance.
“Yes! We’re close. We are satisfied. We’ve improved our top speed a lot and we’re in midfield, which is really important.
“We know that we have a fast racing bike. But always fighting with the Ducatis and these guys with the engine we had was difficult to overtake.
“The same story in all races. A little more power is a big help. I expect that advantage to grow a lot more.”