Jack Miller: ‘Pretty cool’ to silence some critics, ‘now or never’ to join KTM in MotoGP

Jack Miller and KTM both came into the 2023 MotoGP season with plenty to prove.

Miller, who “gets doubted more than anybody on this grid”, was stepping off the world championship-winning Ducati to join a project where previous arrivals Danilo Petrucci, Remy Gardner and Raul Fernandez were dropped after a single miserable season.

Meanwhile the RC16 had been plagued by inconsistency, with Pol Espargaro’s fifth in the 2020 campaign still the high-water mark for a KTM rider in the final standings.

KTM also hadn’t won a dry race since early 2021, which was the last time an ‘orange’ rider took back-to-back podiums.

“Definitely, there were some [negative] comments after I signed because of what happened in the past couple seasons with Danilo struggling, then Remy and Raul as well,” Miller said in an interview with Crash.net at Silverstone.

“It put people, who were not necessarily involved, in a position to maybe badmouth what [KTM] were doing.

“Being able to silence some of those critics – show them these [KTM] guys can put a really good motorcycle together and that I’m not a bad rider who can switch it up on a totally different type of bike – it’s pretty cool to do.”

The omens didn’t look good in winter testing, but the Austrian factory put the pieces together just in time for the Portimao opener – where Miller came out swinging, leading the opening day of the new season, qualifying fifth and battling for the podium.

While it showed what Miller could do even without the ‘best bike’, the 28-year-old felt only those with short memories should have been surprised.

“Because when I hopped on the Ducati [in 2018] it wasn’t the best bike then. But people forget that very quickly around here,” said Miller. “You’re only as good as your last race. That’s the way it is. It’s a cutthroat business.

“But Ducati were nowhere near where they are now when I first signed with them.

“At that time, I had an offer to stay with Honda and I seriously considered it. But I saw the future at Ducati, I was looking at working with Gigi [Dall’Igna] and had seen what they had done already. I could see the upward trend there.

“Then when I was weighing up my options [for 2023], it was not that I got kicked out of Ducati, it was my decision to come over here [to KTM].”

Miller has been a top-six contender at most rounds so far, leading races and finishing on the podium three times (twice in Sprints, plus the Spanish GP).

Team-mate Brad Binder has taken a Sprint win in Argentina, a feat he repeated at Jerez, plus Sunday rostrums in Spain and Silverstone. The South African sits fourth in the world championship, as the top non-Ducati rider, with Miller in eighth.

Miller: “It’s very similar to Cal”

It was shortly after his strong KTM debut that Miller expressed frustration at being “doubted more than anybody on this grid”. Words that echoed those of good friend Cal Crutchlow, a fellow three-time MotoGP race winner, when he was in the premier class.

“It’s very similar,” Miller said.

In Crutchlow’s case, some people never got over his Superbike background. So might Miller missing out on Moto2, by jumping directly from Moto3 to MotoGP in 2015, be a reason for some of his doubters?

“I think that’s got something to do with it. I’ve never thought about it like that for Cal, but what you’re saying [the Superbike background] makes sense to me, dotting the lines together,” Miller replied.

“Perception in this paddock can be a strange thing. I don’t know if it’s like you get seen as an outsider here or what. But yeah, you definitely get doubted more than others.

“I think it’s also because we don’t stand up, beat our chest and say, ‘I’m great, I’m a legend’ and all this carry on. You just go in, work and do your job.

“There are many factors. Whether it can be as well the Australian or English thing – not being Italian, Spanish or whatever. There are definitely guys that have to prove themselves more than others here.

“But I wouldn’t change my situation for anything and being Australian has helped me and given me so many more opportunities than maybe I wouldn’t have got if I was Spanish.

“Like everything, there are positives and negatives, so it’s not really a big deal.”

Miller: It was ‘now or never’ to join KTM

While it soon became clear that Miller’s factory Ducati seat was in serious danger from Enea Bastianini and Jorge Martin for 2023, he could have remained on a factory Desmosedici by rejoining Pramac.

Instead, and despite turning down KTM earlier in his MotoGP career, Miller felt sure the time was right. Even though the unique steel-framed machine, also the only bike with WP rather than Ohlins suspension, had finished fifth in the previous year’s constructors’ standings.

“Call it my intuition or whatever, but I saw the engineers and some guys I knew already [from Ducati] over here [at KTM], plus the guys that they were bringing in and what they were putting into the project,” Miller explained.

“I think with the right people, you’ve got to succeed. There are no two ways about it. So I saw all that and thought ‘now is the time, it’s now or never’.

“I could have signed some years ago with KTM. I didn’t because it just didn’t seem right for me at that point in time. But this time, I never second-guessed it.

“I said to Aki [Ajo, manager] ‘can you start talking and see if they’re interested’. As soon as he said they were keen, I asked ‘Where’s the paper? I’ll sign’. I’d already made my mind up.

“It’s a great factory to work for. I’ve got fond memories obviously from the past [in Moto3] and then with the engineers we have around now as well as Fabiano [Sterlacchini] and Jens [Hainbach] – I have a great relationship with everybody in the box.

“So it was a no-brainer for me.”

Miller: “I’ve picked the boat… I’d love to finish that trifecta”

With Binder’s Sprint victories not counting as grand prix wins, KTM technically still hasn’t won since Miguel Oliveira’s wet victory in last year’s Thai round.

Not that Miller needs any extra incentive, but ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend wife Ruby posted on social media: “If Jack wins, I’ll let him get a new boat.”

“I’ve got the boat picked out, I know what I want – I’ve just got to deliver!” smiled Miller.

“Either way I’ll be getting a boat. That was more of a joke between the wife and I as we were driving to the race, I said ‘If I win this weekend, I’m buying the boat!’

“She’s not quite yet on order, but we’re working on it.”

Also still up for grabs is the honour of becoming the first-ever rider to win MotoGP races for three different manufacturers, a feat only Maverick Vinales is currently in contention for.

“I’ve love to bring the team a win, but also for myself, to be able to finish that trifecta off,” said Miller. “To win with three different bikes in the modern MotoGP era would be amazing.

“That was my thinking all along, to move over here and have another challenge like this. Try to bring my experience over to this bike and be able to lift the level of this bike to a point where I can challenge for victories.

“I feel like we’ve been closer already than I probably would have anticipated.

“I’d love to be able to put three different wins with three different manufacturers but I’d also love to push up into the top five in the championship. I think that’s also definitely doable before the end of the season.

“There’s a lot of points available and a lot of uncertainty in terms of the championship because a lot more races mean a lot more chance of crashes and also mechanical issues because it’s harder on the bikes.

“So there’s a lot that can happen in the back-half of the season, and I feel like at KTM we’ve got a great package. It’s a solid package. I’m never concerned about the bike having a mechanical or anything like that.

“Whereas some of those other bikes – especially towards the end of the year – when the engines start getting a bit old and losing a bit of power… That’s not really an issue we have with the KTM.”

Miller, who led the opening lap of the British MotoGP before being forced wide and recovering to eighth, heads to KTM’s home round in Austria 32-points behind Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati) and a place in the world championship top five.