MotoGP: If Joan Mir won the title without a race win, would it be any less valid?
Joan Mir is close to winning the 2020 MotoGP world championship as a complete outsider, but is yet to win a race, does this make the potential title any less valid?
In short, no, a title is a title, they do not hand out MotoGP titles for fun, otherwise, riders like Andrea Dovizioso, Dani Pedrosa and Max Biaggi would all have at least one title to their name, however, they do not.
Joan Mir has been the king of consistency in MotoGP since taking his first premier class podium at the Austrian Grand Prix, taking 6 x podiums, yet still is without a MotoGP class win, some people say that if he were to win the title without a win, it would not be as ‘valid’ as if he was to win the title with race wins.
We can see both sides of this argument, if Mir was to win the title, he would want to have won at least one race on his way there, however, to win the title, you must be the best performing rider over an entire season, not just one race.
He will have been beaten by a rider in every race this season if he took the title without a win, which means that in a one-race situation, he has not been the best rider, but he has beaten every rider in the long haul.
It is like winning £20 x 10 times or winning £15 x 15 times, sure you’d take the £20 x 10 times, but the winner here is the person winning £15 x 15 times as in the long run, they have come out on top.
This analogy is the same with the MotoGP championship, yes Quartararo has won three races, but he also only has three podiums to his name, whereas Mir has six and many more consistent race results.
It is a long championship over 14 rounds, during these 14 rounds, you have to stay consistent, otherwise, you will be overtaken by your opponents in the standings. Takaaki Nakagami proved this, taking a top 10 points finish in every race so far this season until Aragon 2 where he took his first DNF, this one DNF dropped him from P5 overall to P7, in just one race.
Marc Marquez in 2015 proved why you need to take the points as Mir has been doing each race, Marquez tried to push and take the win in every race in 2015 as he did in 2014 and ended up losing the championship over it, taking many crashes and 0 point scores, whereas Jorge Lorenzo was incredibly consistent that season, as was Valentino Rossi with Lorenzo coming out on top.
All in all, Mir would be a valid champion, even without a race win as he will have proven he was the best rider over the entire season and not just a few races.
Featured image – www.motogp.com
