Jack Miller’s struggles with vibrations are the main reason for his below-par performances, KTM insist. Miller’s search for form has become even more important because he is currently on the lookout for a new team for 2025.
KTM replaced him in their factory team with Pedro Acosta then overlooked him altogether for their Tech3 line-up. But in the meantime, he must continue battling to tame his bike.
“He is the one who suffers more from the vibrations of the new package than the others,” team manager Francesco Guidotti told Motorsport-Total.
Guidotti said about the bike’s vibrations: “It’s the package. “We’ve been struggling with vibrations since the beginning of the year. They’re due to the new package. “Jack, like Augusto Fernandez, is suffering a lot at the moment under these vibrations.
“He cannot use the potential of the motorcycle as he would like to.” Guidotti insisted about Miller: “He won’t give up. “We’re now concentrating on the remaining races this season and will keep trying until the end of the season. After all, we’re here to win.”
Miller finished behind teammate Brad Binder last season, his first since swapping Ducati for KTM. This year started terribly when he lost the front of his bike at Turn 1 of the first grand prix in Qatar, then finished last.
A P5 in Portimao raised hope but remains his sole finish inside the top 10 of a Sunday race this year after nine rounds. Miller is 16th in the MotoGP standings, a place above Tech3’s Fernandez who is also out of a job, as it stands, for 2025.
But, Miller retains great credit for his role in developing the KTM into the coveted bike that it is today. Along with surveying the market to find a new home, Miller must tackle his machine’s troublesome vibrations to return to the form he has shown in seasons past.
KTM explains decision to drop Jack Miller
The Queenslander is out of a ride after Pedro Acosta was promoted to the factory team and Enea Bastianini plus Maverick Viñales signed up to ride for Tech3 in 2025.
Miller had argued in recent weeks that he was still deserving of a seat at least at Tech3 given his contribution to the development of the KTM RC16, and Beirer acknowledged that.
However, the sudden opportunity to snap up both Bastianini – who replaced Miller at the Ducati Team last year – and Viñales, who is a race winner this year on an Aprilia, was too good to refuse.
Tech3 incumbent Augusto Fernandez, in his second season in the premier class after winning the Moto2 championship in 2022, is also looking for a new home.
“As you can imagine, we are happy people right now because we could get a [rider] package together for the future that is very, very promising,” said Beirer, KTM’s Motorsports Director.
“With Enea and Maverick, we have two more very strong riders on board. “But this also means giving up on two riders, who are with us at the moment.
“You [media] followed the market as well as we did, and Mugello [most recent round] was kind of the moment because everything happened really quick. “The window to get these two boys onboard was really, really short. “So, at the end, I’m really super excited that, if you just look at the facts, what kind of great riders we have together [for 2025].
“It’s another step to move the whole package forward.” Beirer nevertheless acknowledged the contribution which ‘Jackass’ and Crew Chief Cristhian Pupulin, who followed him from Ducati, have brought to the KTM MotoGP project.
In fact, he was full of praise for what the duo have done for their team-mates, but Miller is 16th in the championship and his results have not been good enough to save himself. “It’s no secret – I’ve said it before – Jack, his crew chief and then the team, they did something to the bike, which we never did before,” declared Beirer.
“So, at the beginning of last year, they extended the potential of KTM. They showed us new things where we didn’t want to go with the KTM before. So he made us better.
“But, already last year in the second part of the season, Brad [Binder] could benefit much more from what Jack did to the bike than Jack himself. So Jack started to have problems during last year and we could never recover from that.
“I still sign for it, that Jack made our bike better and it looks like at the moment he’s maybe the last one to benefit from that. “And so, our target now – not mid-term, not long-term, but for Assen [next round] – is to get Jack back on-track.
“Something for him is missing to get a good feeling on the bike and we need to find that. We lost that somewhere along the way.” “Jack is not done yet.”
Ironically, Miller has suffered because he has different set-up preferences to his stablemates. Beirer admitted that “giving up on Jack and Augusto is really sad” but the rider market was moving too quickly to give them time to rescue their places in the KTM ranks.
The target now is to help Miller put the results on the board which can save his place in MotoGP more broadly, amid links of #43 to Honda.
“That’s the target, to get him back, to give him also the platform to shine because I want him to stay in MotoGP,” stated Beirer. “I want him to have a good future and find a good ride.
“So the better he can perform with us, it’s win-win. We get better results and it hopefully helps him also to get a good future in this sport. “So I feel Jack is not done yet.”
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