Jack Miller says he feels “an amazing sense of accomplishment” proving his doubters wrong with his switch to KTM as one of the most underrated riders on the MotoGP grid.
Miller moved from the 2022 title-winning factory Ducati team to KTM on a multiyear deal to help build the Austrian manufacturer into a regular frontrunning force.
Changing constructors in modern MotoGP is a significant task, with the bikes growing increasingly specific in their demands of the rider year on year. KTM, for example, uses a steel chassis rather than the carbon fibre used by Ducati, and it’s the only team that uses WP suspension.
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KTM looked like the least fancied manufacturer after pre-season testing, when the RC16 appeared difficult to ride on its way to the lower reaches of the time sheets.
But the start of the 2023 campaign has been far more optimistic for both Miller and his new team.
The Australian finished fourth and seventh in Portugal followed by 10th and sixth in Argentina — enough for 25 points, putting him sixth in the standings as the best-placed rider without a grand prix podium so far this season.
Combined with teammate Brad Binder’s Portuguese sixth and Argentine sprint victory, KTM has found itself second in the constructors standings and third in the teams championship.
Miller’s fourth in Portimão was particularly impressive given it was the first time he’d strung together 12 racing laps on the RC16 after the troubled pre-season testing program.
It was doubly notable for him using the delicate soft front tyre to get there, a strategy the KTM bike has historically struggled to make the most of but one he often deployed successfully at his former team.
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“Being able to translate what I did on the Ducati (with tyres) to the KTM after I think it’s been renowned that all they can run is the hardest thing we’ve got in the allocation and to be able to put it in and do 12 laps like that was nice,” he said in Argentina last week.
“To be able to prove countless people wrong again has been amazing. It kind of gives me an extra power. I think the guys (on the sprint podium), like everybody else, were surprised to see me there.
“It gives me an awesome sense of accomplishment to be there already and to be able to challenge with these guys, and to prove so many people wrong already has been awesome.”
But Miller said the result wasn’t a shock, notwithstanding KTM’s significant improvements since testing, but rather he’s been chronically underestimated as a rider throughout his career.
“I mean, I don’t know what it is,” he said. “I think people still think that I lucked my way into this job somehow at some points, because I get doubted more than anybody on this grid.
“If I knew what it was, I’d fix it.
“I don’t think it’s being Australian, because you’ve got guys like Casey (Stoner) — I come from a long line of great Australian champions.
“But one way or another I’m constantly doubted, and we’ve constantly been able to prove people wrong throughout my career.”
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The Townsville native said what should have reputational achievements had seemingly been ignored at every stage of his career.
“Whether it be stepping straight up from Moto3 and people saying that I was going to be gone within a year — and here I am still, what, eight, nine years later, still going,” he said.
“Being able to be a factory Ducati rider — I got told I would never win in those colours, and I managed to do that.
“And I won on an underpowered (satellite Marc VDS) Honda — the first time that ever happened — but still get doubted.”
Miller has often lamented an underappreciation or underestimation, including at Ducati, where he was restricted to single-season rolling deals despite a solid and consistent upward career trajectory since arriving in the top class in 2015.
He admitted at the end of last season after signing a multiyear contract with KTM that the mental cost of the constant pressure to renew his contracts sometimes affected his on-track performances and played a role in him seeking a deal with another manufacturer.
But the Australian said there was also an emotional upside to constantly breaking through his imposed glass ceiling.
“It’s always nice, and that alone — the sense of being able to prove people wrong and doing it for yourself — has been awesome,” he said.
“That’s what this challenge has always been about — taking another step and trying to move across and do that, and I thank KTM for giving me opportunity and giving me this chance and the support to do this.
“It gives me an amazing sense of accomplishment; I’m sure it gives [KTM] something as well.”
