Ecstar Suzuki's Joan Mir put on an impressive display at the opening MotoGP round in Qatar, finishing top rookie in eighth place and fighting in the podium places until his tyre went off.
This weekend, the Spaniard rolls down a pitlane he hasn't used in the big class before so says a question mark hangs over his potential and he, like Fabio Quartararo, will have to pay close attention to tyre management.
“The opening round in Qatar was a very positive one for me. I was not expecting to be so competitive at my very first race and it was very exciting to find myself among the top group with the more experienced riders," said Mir.
It was good not only for the race itself but also for the opportunity I had to learn. At the end of the race I had to give up the pace because of the progressive consumption of the tyres, and so the race management is one of the aspects I will need to work on.
"But now it’s time to think about Argentina, which is kind of a question mark for me with the MotoGP bike. We haven’t done any testing here, and I expect that the early runs will be needed to simply understand how to ride properly.
"The circuit itself is very nice, and may suit well the GSX-RR, but it will also be tricky in terms of the conditions. In 2017 I got my first victory of the season in Moto3, so I also have good memories from Termas de Rio Hondo, and I hope that they will be replaced by even better memories with the top class.”
Crew chief Frankie Carchedi says Suzuki have improved the bike's braking performance but it could all be down to tyres choice.
“Argentina can be tricky because we don’t test there, and it’s still fairly new on the calendar. The main challenges for us come from the weather and the tyre choice.
In recent years we’ve had varied temperatures and also some rain. It’s a track which suits our bike, and Alex took a podium here last year. We’ve improved the GSX-RR’s braking since then, so we feel positive for the race.
"Setup is important with a lot of fast corners, so you need to balance the bike between acceleration and not too much spinning.”
