MotoGP’s strange title fight: ‘A highly-strung level, you've got to override'

Miller’s factory Ducati team-mate Francesco Bagnaia made history by overcoming five non-scores and a massive 91-point deficit to Fabio Quartararo to snatch the title.

But the Italian certainly wasn’t alone in leaving empty-handed from multiple races this season.

Yamaha’s Quartararo, who won last year’s crown with just a single DNF, failed to score on four occasions, a tally matched by early points leader Enea Bastianini on his way to third in the standings.

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Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro proved the most consistent of the title quartet - which was eventually whittled down to Bagnaia vs Quartararo for the final round - but still suffered two non-scores, plus two other finishes outside of the top ten.

“100%,” said Miller about the unusual inconsistency at the top of MotoGP this season. “I was in the championship fight [until Phillip Island] and I had three non-scores.”

For the first ten years of the MotoGP era, from 2002-2011, the rider crowned world champion suffered on average of just under one DNF (0.9). In four of those seasons, the title winner scored points in every race.

The last ten years, 2013-2022, have seen a world champion's average number of non-scores more than double to 2.2. But 2022 was still exceptional, with Bagnaia effectively overcoming six 'zeros' if the single point gained at Mandalika is also included.

Jack Miller: ‘Everyone’s riding on such a highly-strung level’

Miller believes the tightening competition means it’s harder than ever to be at the front of MotoGP every week. That results in more ‘overriding’, producing more mistakes.

“Everyone’s riding on such a highly-strung level, to bring the speed that you need to be competitive each weekend,” Miller said.

“I think that in turn makes it a little bit more difficult to be as consistent as you were in the past, where you couldn't be in the championship fight if you had more than one DNF.

“With the amount of [fast] bikes now, if you have a bad day you're struggling to get points at some races.

“I've been there! At Mugello and Barcelona I had shit weekends. I wasn’t that far off, but I was fighting for two points.

“Whereas in the past if you had a bad weekend, you were 4th or 5th at max. You chalk it up to as a loss, go on to the next one and the bike would be back on and you'd be alright. You wouldn't override yourself.

“Nowadays I think you’ve really got to override yourself in some areas or at some race tracks. And that's causing the inconsistency - as well as the level of the bikes, level of the riders, the level of the chairmanship and the amount of races there are.

“Everything's got to do with it, I think.”

Like Bagnaia, Miller suffered five non-scores this season. While Bagnaia was the innocent victim of Takaaki Nakagami's fall at Barcelona, Miller was forced to retire with a technical issue in Qatar and taken out by Alex Marquez at Phillip Island.

The Australian finished his final season at Ducati with one win, seven podiums and fifth in the world championship.