Former MotoGP world champion Joan Mir finally confirmed as Marc Marquez’s Repsol Honda teammate in 2023
HRC has confirmed 2020 MotoGP World Champion Joan Mir has signed a two-year contract joining fellow spaniard Marc Marquez at the Repsol Honda Team.
“I’m very excited to officially announce that I will join the Repsol Honda Team next year. Thanks to HRC for trusting me and giving me the opportunity to defend these historic colours, which are full of history and world titles. We will take advantage of all my experience accumulated over the years in MotoGP with Suzuki to contribute as much as possible to the project and to fight together to become world champions again,” said Mir, who is recovering from fractures in his ankle suffered in his lap-one crash in Austria. “Now it’s time to continue focused on my recovery to return to the circuits as soon as possible and have a great end of the season with Team Suzuki Ecstar.”
Mir’s current teammate Alex Rins also moves from Suzuki to Honda machinery next year in the form of Alex Marquez’s Castrol LCR Honda.
Elsewhere, the RNF Aprilia team have also confirmed Miguel Oliveira and Raúl Fernandez as their riders for the next two seasons. Razlan Razali will lead the team through the 2023 and 2024 season on the race-proven Aprilia’s RS-GP machine.
Despite being offered a three-year contract from the GASGAS Tech3 team, Miguel Oliveira opted to continue his career with the RS-GP in what appears to be a more competitive MotoGP package.
Aleix Espargaró and Maverick Viñales will remain in the Factory Aprilia Racing team, and have already shown the capabilities of the RS-GP throughout the 2022 season.
Razlan Razali, WithU RNF Team Principal is pleased with his squad’s new line-up.
“We are extremely excited to welcome Miguel Oliveira and Raúl Fernandez to the WithU RNF MotoGP Team from 2023. It has not been a simple process, but together with Aprilia we are very clear on the riders that we wanted.” Razali said. “Both Aprilia and we believe in the talent of both riders, so we can’t wait for them to ride for us next season!”
Aprilia Racing’s director Massimo Rivola welcomes the new satellite riders.
“Our satellite project together with Team RNF is taking shape in the way we conceived it from the very beginning. We have succeeded in securing two extraordinary talents, two riders that I really respect both from a human point of view and for their technical skills.”
“Miguel has shown his talent in all categories, although he is still very young he has already accumulated a lot of experience by winning four races in MotoGP, sometimes with dominant performances. At his side will be Raúl, a rider I make no secret of having sought out several times. I think he is one of the most crystal-clear promises of recent years, what he did in Moto2 on his debut speaks volumes about his speed. We’ll have to be good at offering them both a technical package that will allow them to perform to their full potential.”