KTM have “lost a little bit of top speed” with latest MotoGP upgrades - Jack Miller

KTM has lost top speed with recent aerodynamic upgrades, according to Jack Miller, but the Australian feels progress has been made in that regard in recent races.

MotoGP returns to Sepang this weekend, where the season began back in February with the first official tests of the calendar year.

“Obviously when we came here at the beginning of the year it was kind of first time out on that new tyre and we’ve done a lot of changes to adapt to that,” Miller said.

He continued to explain that much of the setup work that he’s done in recent races, specifically last weekend in Thailand — where he finished fifth — has been aimed at bringing back some top speed to the bike.

“We made some big steps on Sunday [in Thailand], even in the wet, in terms of pivot, in terms of length of the bike, in terms of exhaust and so on — just trying some different things to gain a bit of top speed,” Miller said.

“We seem too have lost a little bit of that of late, and I feel like we gained that a little bit back on Sunday in Thailand.

“We’ll try and work in our own direction again here and just keep plugging away at it and see what we can do.”

Miller explained that the cause of the loss of top speed has been the new aerodynamic package that KTM began racing at Misano.

“It’s to do with the aero package,” Miller said, “and we’ve made some gains in other areas but lost that top end a little bit. So, we’ve been playing with the aero package, playing with the exhaust package, just more things on the bike rather than the bike itself.”

The new aerodynamics, combined with a new chassis that was introduced at a similar point, does have positive points for handling, Pedro Acosta explained.

"It [the bike] becomes a little bit more calm," Acosta said, "it gives us a little bit more turning. 

"Not ‘wow’, but a little bit. For this, we need to be happy with the changes. It’s not a thing that will make us win or lose a race, it’s a thing to be more safe."

Miller said he hopes to bring some of the progress he made in Thailand to this weekend’s race in Malaysia.

“I Feel like I’ve made some steps over the weekend in Thailand again,” he said. “Fingers crossed we can keep that rolling to this one.

“Obviously, we need to work on qualifying, that’s been our Achilles’ Heel of late, so try and get the bike together to [gain] a little bit more lap time, but we’re heading in the right direction in terms of feel on the bike and understanding where the front end is at, and understanding how much we can push.

“So we’ll try and keep up the hard work and see what we can do here.”

Valencia flooding: “We need to have another race” - Miller

Recent flooding in Valencia has meant the possibility of ending the season this weekend in Sepang has emerged, as well as potential to end the season with a 20th round, but in a circuit away from Valencia.

Miller said that there should be another race, especially considering the context of the battle for the world title between Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin, and that he’s got “no issues” about racing in any specific locations.

“I mean, you’ll race wherever you’re told to race,” Miller said, “I’ve got no issues about that.”

The Australian went on to say that public resources should not be used to fix facilities that would allow the Valencia race to happen, and instead the priority should be the people affected by the flooding.

“More from a resources point of view, I think the main priority obviously at the moment is making sure that people have somewhere safe to live and stay and so on,” he said.

“I don’t think the resources, in terms of clean-up, should be going to a race track for a race to be held, I think the resources should be going to main roads and so on, getting those ready for people to get back to normal life as quickly as possible.

“Obviously, being from north Queensland, we’re quite prone to flooding and so on. I definitely feel for the people affected by it.

“If we do end up racing there, all power to it, if we don’t I completely understand.

“But I believe, the championship the way it is, we need to have another race, for sure, for the boys.

“Two weeks in Malaysia would be perfectly fine by me, but like I said the most important thing is getting people somewhere nice and dry to sleep and their housing and so on.”