MotoGP: Joan Mir: “The real pressure is people who cannot pay rent or buy food”

Joan Mir has won the hearts of many this weekend on track, but what about off track?

At the European GP, Joan Mir took his first MotoGP class race win, however, this was only one of the major things which involved him during the race weekend,

Joan Mir confirmed how incredibly self-aware of his life and his situation are, especially in light of the awful global pandemic which has ruined peoples jobs, their livelihoods and lives in general. We have seen peoples businesses close down for good, others are unable to put food on the table, this has been highlighted by Manchester United football player Marcus Rashford who is providing meals to families who cannot afford to feed their family members.

Being a MotoGP rider, all in all, is pretty good, you get to ride motorcycles and get paid a lot of money to do so in the premier class, not to mention that during the week, you can train and eat healthily without having to go home and slave behind a desk in a 9-5, instead, their training includes riding even more motorbikes. Of course, the job comes with stress and the huge risk of injury or worse, but all the riders know this, and anyway, you can fall down the stairs and receive life-changing injuries, so why not risk your life and enjoy it doing so, after all, you only get one life.

As the late, great Marco Simoncelli put it, “You live more for 5 minutes going fast on a bike than other people do in all of their life.”

Mir said something which has hugely resonated with so many people, an incredibly humble rider, well aware of his elevated position in life with a nice salary and a job he loves. During a press conference, he was asked about the pressure of the title and how he is managing this and responded in a way which was much wiser than his 23 years.

“Of course we have pressure, we are playing with our lives and have to be very focused on doing what we have to do, but in the end, it is our job.

I think there is real pressure, which luckily I do not have, my pressure is ‘good,’ if this year if I win the title it will be super good for me in every way, but if I don’t win, it will still be good.

But the people who cannot pay their rent due to COVID-19, these people who cannot bring food to the table, this is the real pressure, this is not good. 

For sure when I get questions about pressure and about all of this [the title fight] I think about those people and I say no, I do not have pressure, this is my job, I will be good either way so I am privileged you know.”

Truly commendable from the rider to speak about this in such a way, he has a pure heart.

Featured image – www.motogp.com