Miller: Silly for fans, riders to fight. Remember Simoncelli

At just 23-years-old, Jack Miller is one of the youngest riders on the MotoGP grid - and would freely admit he's not always the most mature.

But on Thursday in Austin it was the Pramac Ducati rider who called for calm between riders, fans and media after the Argentina controversy.

In reply to a question about whether Race Direction had acted correctly in Argentina and clearly referring to the furore between Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi - who collided, resulting in a 30-second penalty for Marquez - the Australian said:

"I think they [Race Direction] need to control the fighting a little bit better inside the paddock. I mean we are here to race motorcycles and we're here to fight, but the fight should generally try to stay on track and not so much in the media," he said.

"There are a lot of people coming, especially journalists, trying to get you to say something and I think it's not the correct way. I understand everybody is looking for a great story, but sometimes it's not the right way and it's bending the truth and making other people look bad.

"The fighting I think should stay more on the track and of course, as riders, we need to be careful about what we say because words can be twisted as we’ve seen many times before and a lot of things that maybe have been said, maybe were not meant."

Miller then settled back in his seat but felt compelled to respond when Johann Zarco referenced the Sepang 2015 incident between Rossi and Marquez when giving his answer to the same question.

Their comments are shown in full below.

"Change things in Race Direction? I don’t know," began Zarco, who had earlier stated that 'from one rider to another rider will not have the same penalty'.

"We are touching two gods. We have Vale, who is the first god, and now Marc is becoming this other god because he is doing incredible things.

"So he got the penalty in Argentina and got no points. This is maybe the worst thing for him about the race, but if we remember in 2015 in Malaysia, for sure it was a strange race but Vale kicked Marc and what was the penalty?

"Casey Stoner said normally it would be a black flag but he finished the race I think on the podium and they say, like to have a political solution, 'okay you start from last in Valencia'. But knowing his speed for sure he will finish fourth.

"So difficult to say. It's between riders, we must almost speak together and find the solution together. We have someone that can tell us, 'you must do that' but then we are free to decide and just need to control that I think.

"We have good guys in Race direction and they try the best for everybody, so we cannot change them, they are doing a great job for the safety with the track and everything and then it's our safety when we are fighting together and this we will see between each other."

Once other riders in the press conference had finished responding, Miller sat up and added:

"About what Johann said before, I'm seeing this situation unfolding with a lot of people picking sides and I just want to refresh people's memory of Marco Simoncelli and Dani Pedrosa and how that ended.

"We are all here racing and risking our lives and I think for these fans to pick sides and fight against each other - and also riders to fight against each other - I think it's quite silly and immature. They are quite old and they have to remember that life is short and we are risking our lives here."

The events of the Argentina race, including the level of contact, will be discussed by the riders behind closed doors in a Safety Commission meeting on Friday.

"Well I think it's important to find a solution to know where the limits are. Every rider has his own idea, his own limits. We're going to put it all together and arrive at one solution," said Rossi's team-mate Maverick Vinales.

The problem, as Zarco had previously explained, is that everyone has a different perception of a track incident and the Monster Yamaha Tech3 rider clearly feels not all riders are treated equally.

"I don't know what we can say in the Safety Commission about changing the rules. We can speak about which penalty to give, but it depends how you analyse the action and from one rider to another rider will not have the same penalty," he said.

"I think this will stay, not only for motorbike racing but life in general. So we must try to race in a good way, but we must accept that it's a fight and then keep the fight within some limit. Things can happen sometimes, we just need to control it."

"It's very difficult, but we will speak tomorrow in the Safety Commission. I don’t think we can find anything better [than we have now] but we will work on that," said Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso.

Earlier in the press conference, Miller had shown his renowned humorous side when talking about the bizarre start at Termas - where he lined up on pole position, several rows clear of the field, after all his rivals retreated from the grid due to the wrong tyres.

"It was like I farted on the grid and everybody disappeared very quickly! It was quite funny. I mean it was like dominoes; once one went, everyone went," he smiled.

"But Race Direction did the best they could do under the circumstances. They were put under immense pressure because the pit lane in Argentina is not so big. It's fine for general use but if you have 23 bikes coming out of the pitlane at once it would have been an even bigger casino I think."

But friend and eventual race winner Cal Crutchlow thought Miller deserved more.

"There was one brave man on the grid and it was Jack and he never got truly rewarded firstly for his bravery in qualifying, because even though he got pole but he probably deserved a bonus - Ducati can give him that, and me 50%.

"And then I don’t think he was rewarded even though there was a gap from first to us, it was not really… I think we should have started from pit lane, staggered, the way we thought it should have been. But in the end there was just a mess at the end of pit lane.

"It's hard to say what to do in that position. If you're the Race Director what do you do? There were 23 guys at the end of pit lane fighting for the first position out of pit lane."

Miller went on to finish fourth in the grand prix and is currently sixth in the world championship heading into this weekend.

"Knowing my past record I probably wouldn't have made it past the first lap with that much pressure on my shoulders, sitting there alone on the grid for 35-minutes.

"But I was at the front for most of the race with the boys behind me. I just touched the wet patch and it cost me in the fight for the podium, I was kicking myself a bit, but I learned a lot from the race, also from the time I spent riding with the other boys."

Opening practice takes place on Friday morning at COTA.