Jack Miller: "We just didn't react in time" - Exclusive

On paper, Jack Miller didn’t have much to smile about during his final KTM MotoGP season.

The Australian finished just 14th in the world championship, without a podium for the first time since 2018.

The season began promising at KTM with team-mate Brad Binder claiming his only podiums of the year in the Qatar opener, then Miller 5th and top KTM next time in the Portimao Sprint.

The following Portuguese Grand Prix produced a KTM 3rd-4th-5th courtesy of Pedro Acosta, Binder and Miller.

However, Ducati soon pulled away, while Miller wouldn’t break into the top ten again until Misano. And then only once more, in the Buriram rain, before the end of his RC16 career.

“Some positives, no negatives,” insisted Miller during an interview with Crash.net at the penultimate Sepang round.

“Everything's a learning experience. It's not been the easiest time for me, but also not the worst.

“Anytime you're going through difficult moments, I think it makes you into a better, more rounded rider.

“So I try and take away the learning aspect of it all. What we've learned over the years dealing with the struggles, the difficult things with the bike and also just trying not to ever let it get us down too much.

“Just focus on the things that we can change. And not so much worry about the things we can't change.”

“We were too slow to react”

In the earlier years of the KTM project, too many new parts were thrown at the RC16 during a season, leaving the riders under-prepared for the races.

That resulted in a more careful system of development, bolstered by the arrival of superstar test rider Dani Pedrosa, with only proven advances making it to the race team.

But the pendulum seemed to swing too far the other way at the start of 2024, leaving KTM playing catch-up in adapting the RC16 to the revised rear tyre.

“I wouldn't say [the change of rear tyre] knocked things off course because change is inevitable. You can't expect to get the same tyres year after year after year,” Miller said.

“Change is happening. And I don't think our way to react, our set up and in terms of what we were able to do to change the way things were going with the bike… We were too slow to react, let's say.

“We tried our best with the things that were in our power. We just didn't react in time.”

All factories prioritise their fastest riders but, having fallen behind Acosta and Binder in terms of results, the ‘reaction’ issue was exacerbated for Miller by the post-Mugello news that he was out of a KTM seat for 2025.

“Especially when we're not getting updates and so on and so forth. You're kind of just trying to adapt yourself and ride around issues," Miller said.

“That's something I've learned from this year especially, more than last year, is just try to make the best out of the situation. Try to give our maximum on the bike and make sure I'm bringing my best week in, week out as well.”

The most obvious example of Miller’s 2024 issues came during practice at Motegi when TV cameras filmed a massive amount of chatter from the rear of his KTM.

“That’s been my life for the last ten months,” Miller said at the time. “It’s been doing it ever since we put this [revised rear] tyre in and I haven’t been able to find a solution - as you saw.

“The solution is trying to ride through it, but it’s like a wall you keep hitting your head against.”

Miller “felt an immediate boost” with carbon fibre chassis

One of the areas where Miller and Tech3's Augusto Fernandez fell behind in bike development during the season was the RC16’s unique carbon fibre chassis.

Fernandez was never as comfortable with the carbon fibre as he had been with the previous steel frame. However Miller “felt an immediate boost” from its debut at the 2023 Misano test and still believes the technology has “great potential”.

“I wouldn't say that the carbon fibre chassis is the issue,” Miller said. “[It’s just that] myself and Augusto are still on the very first version of the carbon fibre chassis.

“I think there's great potential there to exploit. The possibilities are endless. But obviously you need to continue to develop these kinds of things and there's some things that maybe we haven't worked hard enough on, let's say.

“Whether it be with the test team, whether it be with having the chance to work on that. Or whether the carbon chassis itself is really difficult to modify, that's the only thing I can sort of put that down to.

“But there was a reason why we started using [the carbon fibre chassis] and that was simply because the turning was better.

“So again, change is inevitable. You need to keep going.

“You can't say that the steel chassis is better because as soon as I tried the carbon chassis, I felt an immediate boost and from the back end of last year, it really helped us.

“Like I said, it just needed some more fine-tuning and some updates.

“The [other] boys are on a newer version - Pedro and Brad - and it seems that they're both relatively happy. They’re not taking [the updated chassis] out of their bikes, so it means that they made a step in the right direction.”

Miller will return to an aluminium frame at Pramac Yamaha next season, as used during his opening eight years in MotoGP with Honda and Ducati.